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IRELAND'S

AN EXCURSION THROUGH IRELAND,

1844 & 1845,

FOR THE PURPOSE OF PERSONALLY INVESTIGATING THE
CONDITION OF THE POOR.

BY A. NICHOLSON.

NEW YORK: '

BAKER AND SCRIBNER,

145 NASSAU ST., AND 36 PARK ROW.
1847.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by
A. NICHOLSON,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States,
for the Southern District of New York.

S.W BENEDICT,
Stereotyper and Printer, 16 Spruce Street.

PREFACE.

A PREFACE is like a porter at the entrance of a castle
or a dinner-party ; however necessary his attendance
may be, and however dazzling his livery, he can expect
but a hasty brush from the passers in ; it is the castle
they want to see, it is the dinner they have come to eat.
Knowing, however, that every public act demands a pub-
lic explanation, I give my candid reasons for doing
so strange a work, and for doing it in so strange a
way.

We have had many " Pencillings by the Way," and
u Conciliation Halls," and " Killarney Lakes" from the
tops of coaches and from smoking dinner tables. But
one day's walk on mountain or bog, one night's lodging
where the pig, and the ass, and horned oxen feed,

" Like Aaron's serpent, swallows all the rest."

" Remember, my children," said my father, u that
the Irish are a suffering people ; and when they come
to your doors, never send them empty away." It was in
the garrets and cellars o£J£e.w_]£qrk that I first becanie
"aCquatnTed witn the Irish peasantry >.. and it was there I
jgtg tiiey were^^nf^rmg pe_ojj>le_. Their patience, their
cheerfulness, their flow of blundering, hap-hazard,

iv PREFACE.

happy wit, made them to me a distinct people from
all I had seen. Often, when seated at my fireside,
have I said to those most dear to my heart, " God
will one day allow me to breathe the mountain air of
the sea-girt coast of Ireland — to sit down in their cabins,
and there learn what soil has nurtured, what hardships
have disciplined so hardy a race — so patient and so im-
petuous, so revengeful and so forgiving, so proud and
so humble, so obstinate and so docile, so witty and so
simple a people."

Those who then laughed at my vagaries, have all
gone down to th« dust. The world was before me, and
all mankind my brethren. " I have made you desolate.
I want you for other purposes. Go, work in my vine-
yard," was the word. I conferred not with flesh and
blood. No pope or priest, no minister or prelate aug-
mented my purse, to enable me to spy out the naked-
ness of the land. I came " a warfare at my own
charges." I came to gather no legends of fairies or
banshees, to pull down no monarchies, or set up any
democracies ; but I came to glean after the reapers, to
gather up the fragments, to see the poor peasant by
wayside and in bog, in the field and by his peat fire,
and to read to him the story of Calvary. I came to
linger with the women at the foot of the cross, and go
with them early to the sepulchre. I have done so ; and
should the fastidious reader say that this condescending
to men of low estate, this eating with publicans and
sinners — above all, this lodging in a manger, is quite in
bad odor if not in bad taste, he must be told it wag
because there was no " room for me in the inn," or be-
cause my pained feet could go no further.

I had counted the cost. I knew there were professed

PREFACE. v

Christians in the nineteenth century, who would be for-
getful to entertain strangers, and would ask, " where
hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness ?" I
knew there were " doorkeepers in the house of God,"
who would say, " Sit thou here under my footstool,"
if " the gold ring and goodly apparel" were wanting ;
and I knew that she, whose delicate foot never treads
the threshold of the poor, would scruple the propriety
if not the reputation of her who does it. I have not
" dipped my pen in gall" towards any of those ; I have
mentioned no names where they could be readily avoid-
ed, and then, in most cases, where gratitude required
me to do so.

1 • I ask no reward — I ask no sympathy. This sowing
by the side of all waters has been abundantly paid by
the " God save ye kindly," and the " Fear not, I am
with you.''

Reader, I would not be an egotist — I would not
boast ; but I would speak of that Almighty Arm that
sustained me, when, on a penny's worth of bread, I
have walked over mountain and bog for twenty and
twenty-three miles, resting upon a wall, by the side of
a lake, or upon my basket, reading a chapter in the
sweet Word of Life to some listening laborer. And
when at night-fall, in some humble lodging-house, my
potatoe and salt were taken, my feet bathed, then could
I sing of mercy ; then could I say, what lack I yet ?
I never had one fear by night or by day, nor ever cast
a longing, lingering look behind, to my once loved home
across the ocean.

Should the devout reader be disappointed at the want
of gravity in some of the details, he can only be told
that facts are delineated as they occurred ; not to make

vi PREFACE.

a story or a book, bnt to present' tr> % W^ the -rus-
tic as he is — the seemli_andj^he , unseemly v the Jjeautiful
[and^ijie deformed, the consistent and the inconsistent.
\Whoever mixes awhile with the heterogeneous jumble
of Irish sadness and Irish mirth, will find that to be
grave at all times,

" Exceeds all power of face."

One great difficulty in the^narration hasbeen thejgro-
noun I.^__ Many interesting facts have been partially
illustrated, and some wholly suppressed, because this
officious letter must ^figure so prominently.

Allow inetp^aj^to^ ejv^rv_jChristian and every phi -
lanthropist, " Turn not away from yoSiTown flesli."
There is a vast amount of talent in its native rubbish
in the mountains of Kerry and Connemara, and in the
bogs of Connaught. Far too many roses have already
wasted their " sweetness on the desert air" — too many
a dark-haired Kerry girl has lavished her graces on
the mountain goat and sheep she has tended, without
once reading the story of the Ruth and Rebecca whom
she, in occupation, unknowingly imitates. I do not
say, Do the work as I have done, but, Do it, and do
it better. If my steps will not serve as a pattern, my
aberrations may as a warning. Their proprieties
and improprieties are before you ; and you must show
me a u more excellent way," or I shall certainly do the
same thing in the same manner, if again honored with
the mission.

It was never my intention to tax the Irish public with
another volume, added to the huge pile already written
on Ireland. ^It was my design to go silently through
among the poor, and tell the storf to" "Tny~own "country-

PREFACE. vii

men ; that they might be induoed to labor more untir-
ingly and effectually for. the. .destitK^ftQrJLio.^of^^s
nation, wlio are daily landing upon their shores. But
I heard the sound of an " abundance of rain ;'7 the cloud
is spreading over mountain top and lowly glen ; they
that " for want and famine are desolate," are crying,
" give us food to eat, we loathe this light manna ;" and
from many a pulpit through the length and breadth of
the land I hear, " Thrust in the sickle, for the harvest
is ripe." The treasury is open, and the rich men are
casting in their gifts. Accept the mite of the widow ; it
is small indeed, but it is " all her living," and given
heartily and cheerfully. ^

The reader is assured that nothing has been added to
meet the state of the famine of 1846 and 1847. Facts
are related as they occurred and were described in 1844
and 1845 ; and these facts then indicated that an explo-
sion must soon take place, and that Ireland must be turn-
ed inside out ; so that all the world might see that, de-
formed as may be her surface, her vitals show a disease
hereditary, obstinate, and still more odious, which opi-
ates or ointments cannot cure.

Thanks to the Hibernian Bible Society, which fur-
nished me with the Word of God in English and Irish,
through the instrumentality of a friend, who also pro-
cured for me tracts and other suitable books for distri-
bution, on my last tour round the coast. It was not till
four excursions had been made in the interior, that my
name and object were known. They, therefore, are not
amenable for anything I have said or done. I was not a
" chosen vessel" of theirs. God reward their bounty,
by the finding " after many days," of this bread " cast

viii PREFACE.

upon the waters." " Thou knowest not which shall
prosper, either this or that."

Thanks to all those who have spoken kind words to
the stranger ; and thanks to those who have felt called
to give the distant look or the cool rebuke — the former
have filled my heart with gratitude, and the latter have
made me cling closer to the High Arm that sustained
me.

ASENATH NICHOLSON.
Dublin, June 10th, 1847.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

Departure from New York— The Author's Parentage— Fellow Passengers— Death
on Board— A good Captain— Death of a Drunkard— Arrival at Liverpool— Voy-
age to Dublin and Arrival at Kingstown— A chapter of Accidents— Difficulty of
obtaining Lodgings — A Morning Walk — Visit to a Roman Catholic Clergyman
—The Linen Hall— The North Union Poor House— Letters of Introduction—
A Strange Reception — Asylum for Unmarried Ladies 17

CHAPTER II.

Dialogues with the Poor— An English Prophecy— C Ion tarf Castle— Plan for the
Relief of the Destitute — A. Dying Saint — Journey to Tullamore — Family Af.
fliction— Visits to the Poor— The Jail— The Poorhouse— Irish Beggars— A
Scene on leaving Tullamore — Return to Dublin — Extraordinary Spectacle on
the Road — Connaught Laborers — The Two Convicts — A Man's Merit cannot
be judged by his Coat— Another Visit to the Dying— A Military Congrega-
tion... 35

CHAPTER III.

Visit to the County of Wicklow — A Tremendous Coach-load — Horrors of the
Journey — Safe Arrival and kind Reception — A Happy Family — Shelton Abbey
— Arklow— Beautiful Scenery— Arklow Fishermen— Domestic Turmoil— Rath-
drum— The Vale of Avoca— Wicklow Gold Mines— A Hungry Man— An Old
War Horse— A Scriptural Answer— Visit to a Rectory 51

CHAPTER IV.

The Church of Kilbride— A Methodist Minister— Methodism in Ireland— Visit
to the Rectory — Tetotalism unfashionable — American Courtesy to Females
not universal in Ireland — The Seven Churches of Glendalough — Foolish Le-
gends connected with this locality— Strange Exhibition of Party Spirit- -Re-
turn to Dublin— Lady Harburton's School , , 68

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

The Second Cabin of a Canal-Boat—Much ado about Sixpence— A Blind Fiddler
—A Jaunting Car Jaunt— Arrival at Kilkenny— Cordial Hospitality— Kilken-
ny Beggars— Journey to Urlingford— A Rural Physician— Ride in a Turf Kish
— The Poor Widow's Welcome— A Country Dance— Departure of an Emigrant
—Lamentations thereupon— Kind Reception in an intelligent Roman Catholic
Family— An Irish Wake— A Faction— Fair at Urlingford— Costume of the
Peasantry— Visit to a National School * 82

CHAPTER VI.

Cabin Life — Urlingford Spa— Rebuff from a Clergyman — New Birmingham
Colliery— Village of Grange— The Police— A Good Methodist— Mr. Barker of
Kilcooley— Yankee Doodle— Residence in the Neighborhood— Visit to Thurles
— Ancient Abbey of Holy Cross — Journey to Clonmel, Dungarvan, and Cappo-
quin— Visit to the Trappist Monastery of Mount Mellary 99

CHAPTER VII.

The spirit of Caste injurious in Ireland— Journey to Youghal— the Blessed Well
of St. Dagan — Cabin Hospitality — Uncourteous Reception by Sir Richard Mus-
grave— Rebuff from a "great, good man"— Rejoicings at Lismore for O'Con-
nell's Liberation — A Disaster — Brutality of an Inn-keeper's Son — Dungarvan
— Two silent Quakeresses — Thoughts on Irish Hospitality — Unsuccessful Ap-
plication to Bianconi — Strong National Peculiarities of the Irish — Unpopular!
ty of Stepmothers— St. Patrick's Well— A Poor Old Woman— A Baptist Min-
ister—Happy Molly, 121

CHAPTER VIII.

Nunnery at Thurles— Monks' School— Dialogues on the Road— Grateful Re-
flections—Nocturnal Alarm — Affecting Incident— A Gay Consumptive — Part-
ing from True Friends— A Jolly Company— Lamentation on Lying— Walk to
Roscrea— A Weariful Woman— A Centenarian— Charity Sermon— A Christian
Sister — A Poor House — Visit to a Great Brewer — A Funeral — Father Mathew

—Remarkable Vivacity of the Irish— Self Denial— Short Commons A

Snug Protestant Farmer's Household— Cool Recepti on 133

CHAPTER IX.

CONTENTS. ri

lers — An Interesting Trio — Reading the Bible — A Scripture Discussion — A
Connaught Catholic's Experience of Church-going — Market-day in Loughrea —
A Shebeen House — A Pig's Honesty — Remorseless Staring — More Bible Reading
— Scarcity of Female Beauty in Gal way — Staring in Galway beyond Descrip-
tion—Ancient Burial-ground — Visit to a Presbyterian Minister who had just
married a Rich Wife — Laborers standing in the Market-place — Miserable
Lodgings— Walk to Oranmore— The name of " American Stranger" a Key to
the People's Hearts— A Connemara Girl 162

CHAPTER X.

Walk to Loughrea— Thoughts of Home— A New Day— A Fellow Traveller
— Cabin Theology — Such a Bed ! — Eyre-Court — Hearty Welcome in Ba-
nagher — An Anxious Mother — A Noble-hearted Daughter — Incursionof a
Troop of Connaughtmen into an Inn, and how they behaved themselves —
Visit to Mr. S.— Rejection— Christian kindness of Poor Mary and her Bro-
tner 189

CHAPTER XI.

ovel Interior of a Cabin — No Lodging Place— Dreary walk through mud and
rain to Roscrea— what to do for a bed ?— a profitable Sixpence— Start joyfully,
with fiae weather, and threepence in my purse— A Lift from a " Friend"—
Money-letter at Urlingford — Reflections — Honesty and kindness of the poor
Irish Peasantry — Parting from cordial friends — Garrulous fellow-traveller —
Perilous position — Return to Dublin, and kind reception— Puzzling Voyage of
Discovery k 211

CHAPTER XII.

Start for another Tour— How to carry a heavy Load with little Trouble— A for-
midable Animal in the Caravan— Wicklow— Visit to a Poor Cabin, Half-a-crown
earned in Three Months— Attentive Auditory— Wretched condition of a Sick
Woman — The bright Old Man of the Mountain — Sabbath Hymn, and the
Company collected thereby— The Scholar with his Iliad— Visit to Wicklow
Lighthouses— Wexford— Infant School— A tolerant Catholic 222

CHAPTER XIII.

Public Buildings in Wexford — Unexpected Delay — American Family — A Rare
Lady — Appreciation of Teachers — Doctors differ — Delightful Family — Over-
lading of Vehicles— Waterford— Clonmel— Car Travelling and Companions on
the Road— Lodgings in Cork 235

xii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIV.

Reception from Father Mathew— The Aged Nun— Temperance Tea Party-
Danger of becoming a Public Character— One Source of the Reverence paid to
the Priest— Ursuline Convent and its Elegancies— Sail to Cove— Beautiful
Bay— Search for Dr. Power— The Begging Whine— Trip to Blarney— Racy
Old Priest—" The Blackguard Salt Herring"— Wonders of Blarney— Dr.
Barter's Hydropathic Establishment— Our Jolly Priest is no Tetotaler—
Walk to Cove— Pleasant Little Maidens— Delightful time passed in Dr. Pow-
er's Family 243

CHAPTER XV.

Cloy ne— Difference between Upstarts and the really Wellbred— Practical Proofs
of the same — Wonderful Natural Caves — City Jail of Cork — Humane Governor
— Prison Discipline — Taking leave of a good man — Character of Father
Mathew — No Monopoly in Orthodoxy — A Night in Bandon— A Peasant Family
employed, a rare sight in Ireland— Arrival at the miserable town of Bantry.262

CHAPTER XVI.

Exploration in Bantry— Poverty, Wretchedness, and Filth of the Dwellings-
Grand Poor-house standing unoccupied— Wigwam Row — My attendant, John
— Employment a Novelty — Beautiful Bay of Bantry — Glengariff — Bad choice
of a Lodging-house— A Motley Audience— No Refuge from the Staring-
Morning Levee — Lord Bantry's Cottage — Hospitality at the Gatehouse — Call
at my ill-chosen Lodgings 275

CHAPTER XVII.

Rambles in Glengariff— Household Manure— Kind Little Guide— A Gallant
Offer— Splendid Interior of the Slated House— A Rare and Lofty Larder-
Perilous Transit— Wild Natives— Dwelling of the Three Sisters— Spiritual
Fallow Ground — Man sometimes behind the Lower Animals — The Author de-
livers a Short Sermon — Good-bye to Glengariff and the Hospitable Family of
the Gatekeeper— Lakes and Mountains— Publican versus Priest— Ride among
Turf Baskets— Early Matrimony 288

CHAPTER XVIII.

CONTENTS. xiii

tie of the Ghosts — " Pair of Slippers" — Test of Orthodoxy — Staring I Star-
ing !— Another Hospitable Gate-house— Lord Kenmare's Park— Calm Sabbath
Morn— The Little Petitioner for the " Word of God"— A Door of Access.. 302

CHAPTER XIX.

Fellow Travellers on the Kerry Mountains — Bay of Ross by Moonlight — " Fine
Stage-house"— Loss of Appetite— Feet-bathing Extraordinary— Kerry Trick
— Glorious Morning oa the Mountains, in spite of Hunger and Weariness-
Cabin Courtesy — Women a Beast of Burden — Lodging-house at Cahirciveen —
A Saucepan an Unattainable Luxury — Religion and Filth — Guests to the
Fair— Curly-headed Biddy— Battle of the Sticks— Sabbath Services— Protes-
tant Whiskey-Selling— Improved Quarters 319

CHAPTER XX.

An Americanized Irishman — Armed Defence — Modern Mermaids — Island of Va-
lentia — Employment and a good Landlord — Couversible Coast Guard — A
Child's Mute Appeal — Poverty and Low Rents— Ridiculous Old Custom —
Derrynane—O' Council's Library— Cold Comfort— Hospitable Port in a Storm
— Lighthearted Burdenbearers — Kerry Dancing and KerryiKindness 336

CHAPTER XXI.

Rough Road — A Kind Offer declined — Lonely and Late — The Funeral Lament
— Maurice Raheley's Lodging House — Perfumed Bedchamber— Sunrise on the
Kerry Mountains — Novel Duet — Mountain Air or City Smoke? — Irish Roads
—A Tetotaler in Bad Company Awful Night— Sabbath of Rest at Killarney
—Gap of Dunloe— Guide Persecution— The "Crazy Woman"— Where to
spend the night— Bright Wood Fire— Recollections of Childhood— Dinis Island
—Debt of Gratitude. ... ... 349

CHAPTER XXII.

Tralee— Public-house honesty— A " Gentlem?u "— Mr. Walpole's Honorable
Dealings — Christianity at Dingle — ''They always Stand" — One Bright Spot —
The Converts — Education of the Lower Order — Nancy Brown's Parlor — Co-
quetry and Gallantry — Peasant Girl's Poetry — Learned Priest — Sybil Head —
" Look ! Look !"— Fearless Children— Disappointment and Vexation— Candid
Hotel-keeper— Banks of the Shannon 364

riv CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Sail up the Shannon to Limerick— Poorhouse Stirabout— Sleepless Night at
Ennis — Town without Bread — Grievous Ignorance — True Delivery of my one-
armed Charioteer— Basket of Bones— My Carpet-bag ransacked— Learned
Schoolmaster— Exchange of Compliments— Red Petticoats— Old Pedlar and
his daughter— Temple of Nature— The back of the Barracks— Marble Quarry
—Completely Watersoaked— Connemara Hospitality— Bundles of Straw— Sab-
bath in the Mountain Cabin 379

CHAPTER XXIV.

Clifden— Clifdeu Castle— Irish Holidays— Walk to Roundstone— Hardships of
Irish Tenants— Three Guides pointing three different ways— Potatoes a Curse
upon Ireland — A Rough and Weary road — Absence of Trees — An aged Pil-
grim— Good Wishes — A Timely Supply — Judicious Advice — A Kind Curate —
A Connemara School — Ascent of the Diamond Mountain, and Adventure by
the Way— Tully— No Bread to be had in the Town— The Isle of Oma, and the
Natives thereof— Change for the better in Conuemara— Return to Clifden,395

CHAPTER XXV.

Misfortune in Clifden— Reverse of Fortune— An Aged Pilgrim —Eager Listeners
—Visit to a Dying Man— Glorious Sunset— An officious Policeman— Lady
Clare — Arrival in Galway — Obtrusiveness of the Women — A Sermon on Bap.
tism — Journey to Westport — Introduction to Mr. Poundon — A devoted Pres-
byterian Minister — Sketch of a Christian Missionary, such as Ireland needs —
Croagh Patrick— Hazardous Ascent to the Mountain— Grand Prospect from
the Summit — Return to Westport — Doubts Removed — Filial Affection — A
Poor Protestan t. . . , ... 415

CHAPTER XXVI.

Sunday Sermons— Newport— A Relic of Better Days— Arrival at Achill Sound,
and Kind Reception from Mr. Savage and his Family— Visit to the Colony-
Mr. Nangle's Protestant Missionary Settlement— Molly Vesey's Lodgings-
Visit to the Schools at the Colony— Walk to the Keem Mountains— A Cente-
narian—The Amethyst Quarries— The Author's Acknowledgments and Cen-
sures Explained— Mr. Nangle's Weekday Lecture— Interview with Mr. and
Mrs. Nangle — Doctrinal Conversion is not all that is due to the Convert from

CONTENTS. xv

Popery — A Reformed Roman Catholic Priest— Renewed Hospitality at the
Sound — Another Short Visit to the Colony — Newport— Intemperance not
Banished from the County of Mayo — Westport — Castlebar — Sligo — A Beau-
tiful Gem— Hospitality in Death— Picturesque Scenery of the County of Sligo
—Return to Dublin— The Mendicity Association. 429

CHAPTER XXVII.

Mr. Nangle's Notice in the Achill Herald, of the Author's Visit to the Settle-
ment— Remarks upon this Document and the motives which probably dic-
tated it— Concluding Observations relative to the objects of the Writer's
Tour in Ireland, and the Reception she met with from various Classes of the
Community 451

IRELAND'S
WELCOME TO THE STRANGER.

CHAPTER I.

Departure from New York — The Author's Parentage — Fellow Passengers —
Death on Board— A good Captain— Death of a Drunkard — Arrival at Liverpool
—Voyage to Dublin and Arrival at Kingstown— A Chapter of Accidents— Diffi-
culty of obtaining Lodgings — A Morning Walk — Visit to a Roman Catholic
Clergyman— The Linen Hall— The North Union Poor House— Letters of In-
troduction— A Strange .Reception — Asylum for Unmarried Ladies.

IT was in the spring of 1844, May 16th, that I stood
upon the deck of the ship BROOKLYN, and saw the last
spire of New York recede in tho distance. It was the
home of my childhood — the land where hopes and dis-
appointments had ebbed and flowed ; where I had looked
out through smiles and tears, till the last earthly tie was
severed ; and where the last tear was dried on the graves
of those most loved. I had no more to shed. It was
with a stoical indifference I heard the last farewell, and
took the last grasp of the hand of him who asked,
" When shall we look for you home ?" and then I shut
myself into the narrow cabin, which was to be my parlor
and bed-room during the voyage, heeding neither wind,
nor wave, nor monster of the deep. It was notjfcherich,
the honored, or the happy I was hoping to meet ; U was
noTtheirisaltitations or presents T was going to seek for.
ftjpjras the "poor and the outcast. I was about to visit
those who in dens and caves of the earth, .were_

18 THE VOYAGE. [CHAP. i.

got t '.'ii by their neighbors," and who heard, no kinder
vo"luus 111 alT "the"" whistling of the winds, or the screech-
ing of some desolate owl among. the .mountains and crags
where they, had made their habitations.

1 was alone. Not a soul in the ship but the captain
knew my name, or understood my object, and leaving
the command of the vessel to him, and the working of
the ropes to the sailors, I betook myself to the opening of
my parcels, to ascertain what necessary supplies they
contained for mind and body in a voyage like this.

" My boast is not that I deduce my birth,
From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,
The child of parents passed into the skies."

My home education was of the most uncompromising
kind. My parents were descended from the puritanical
stock ; they taught me that goodness alone was great-
ness ; that, in order rightly to estimate the worth of a
man, his gold watch and equipage, his title and station,
must be deducted ; that a conformity to the customs
of the world, when they clashed with the sound princi-
ples of the gospel, or the strictest rules of morality, was
not only a sin, but meanness of spirit. My father had
read little and thought much ; and though somewhat
•orthodox, yet he cared not whether his neighbor prayed
kneeling or standing, if he prayed in the true spirit, or
whether the psalm were in a minor or a major key, or
performed in common or triple time, if sung, making
melody in the heart to God. He hung no quakers, nor
put any men in a corner of the church because they
had a colored skin. He rebuked sin in high places with
fearlessness, and forgave all personal injuries before for-
giveness was asked.

My mother remembered the poor, and entertained
strangers ; hated oppression, scorned a mean act, and
dealt justly by all. She taught me that in order to
be healthy, I must rise early, and if I desired to take
an honest breakfast with a proper relish, I must earn
before eating it ; that to find friends, I must show

CHAP, i.] THE VOYAGE. 19

myself friendly ; that to live peaceably, I must allow
my neighbors to go out and in, "eat, drink, and dress
when and how they liked ; always avoiding putting
my head into a hornets' nest, if I would not be stung.
" And when you are sent from home," she emphatical-
ly said, " conduct yourself well, and your good name
will take care of itself; always remembering that a
character which requires lawyers and doctors, ministers
and elders, to look after it is not worth a groat." With
these principles in my head, if not in my heart, I was
sent into the world, to make my way, through good and
through evil report, as best I could. I looked out upon
the' seas ; the vessel was well under weigh, and the dizzy
passengers had already begun to exclaim, " O dear !
I am dreadfully sick."

My chum now entered ; we were shut in — and, like
or dislike, there was no alternative ; snugly packed
as we were, there was no escape, and we immediately
set ourselves about, as Eve's daughters are wont to
do, ascertaining each other's pedigree, object, and|des-
tination.

I found her to be an Irish lady, born and bred in the
city of Dublin, but she had passed five years in the city
of New York, to which she had become greatly attach-
ed. She had left her husband and three children to
go on business to Ireland, and though she cast many a
" longing, lingering look " back to them, yet she never
forgot that she must do good unto all when opportunity
presented, and she never neglected the performance of
that duty, when necessity required it. Her tall and
noble figure, her high open forehead, united with an
unpretending thongh dignified manner, and the bene-
volence of her heart, which beamed in her placid eye,
made her to me an object not only of interest, but of
warm attachment. Often when she returned to the
berth from some errand of kindness among the sick and
distressed have I said in my heart, " Who would not
love such an angel of mercy ?" Thus was the begin-
ning of my journey prosperous, and all anxiety for the
morrow was banished by the blessings of to-day.

THE VOYAGE. [CHAP. i.

Our cabin companions consisted of the widow of a
clergyman, with her son and daughter, who were return-
ing from New York to England, their native country ;
an Irishman, who had spent the last twenty-five years in
America, a naval officer, an editor from the United
States (a genuine American), and the young Irish wife
of the mate, on a visit to " her people." These, with
one exception, gave more cause of praise than blame,
and made me quite willing to balance accounts with
them all when we parted.

All was quiet after the first wrenchings were past.
On the third morning after our departure, the captain
came up from the steerage, saying, u We have had a
death on board." The wife of a Scotchman occupied
the same berth with her son, a boy of thirteen. She
went to bed the preceding evening in as good health as
when she came on board, and she slept the sleep of
death in the night. Her husband and another son of
twenty were in a berth above them, and knew nothing
of the circumstance till the young boy awoke, and found
his mother cold and stiff by his side.

On descending the steerage stairs, I saw the accom-
paniments of death as they never had been presented
to my view before. The rough hands of the sailors
were wrapping the slender body in hempen cloth, and
fitting iron weights to the feet, to cause it to sink. The
father and the eldest son looked silently, if not coldly
on; whilst the younger boy, in a flood of grief, was
interrupted occasionally by the stern command of his
father, to " hold his tongue."

The body was placed on deck, and at twelve the
captain assembled the crew, read some passages of
Scripture, appropriate for the burial of the dead, prayed
(for he was a man of prayer), and four sailors raised the
board containing the body upon the railing of the deck,
turning away their faces ; one dismal plunge was heard ;
the parted wave closed again, and all was hushed, save
the suppressed sobs of the young son. The captain
whispered, " the husband was not kind," and each
turned to his monotony again.

CHAP, i.] THE VOYAGE. 21

The voyage went quietly on. The captain assembled
the crew as often as possible, for prayer and praise,
and gave good proof that a ship may be a temple of
worship, and that sailors may be treated as men, and
be men still. There was no scolding, no flogging, and
but little swearing, to make us feel as if we were on
boad a slave-ship or a man-of-war.

We had proceeded some eight days, when the widow's
son, who had been in the navy, and had lost his health
by his excesses, gave sad proof that

" A soldier's arms,

Through the vanity and brainless rage
Of those that bear them, in whatever cause,
Seem most at variance with all moral good."

He was, at all hours of the night, either at the door
of his mother and sister, demanding gin, or roving
about the cabin with reddened eyes, declaring that his
frenzied brain would make him mad. Sometimes he
appeared suddenly in our midst, almost in a state of
nudity, on deck, or at table ; till, like a maniac as he
was, nothing but coercion could restrain him, and he
died on a bright Sabbath morning while we were at
breakfast ; and before the sun had gone down upon the
ship, the unfortunate young man was plunged beneath
the waves. The mother and sister sat at a distance,
while the prayer and burial went on, tearlessly viewing
the last office for the dead, when, turning away, a low
murmur from the mother was heard, u Ah ! I could not
save him."

Twenty-one days took us into the Channel, and seven
more of calm set our feet upon the dock at Liverpool,
at a late hour of the night. The next took us to the
custom-house, and there, to my happy disappointment,
was demanded no duty, the officer kindly telling me
that, as my books were for gratuitous distribution in
Ireland, he regretted I had not a thousand more, and
that he should make no charges. A tea-cup full of
oatmeal stirabout and milk, a night's lodging in a dwell-
ing contiguous to the hotel (for the talkative landlady

KINGSTOWN. [CHAP. i.

had her house full) made a charge of six English shil-
lings, besides a sixpence each to two servants, neither
of whom had I seen till I stood at the door to depart.

At two o'clock I took the packet for Ireland ; and
when I stood upon the plank which was to conduct me
on deck, and looked upon the loved face of her who
had been my never- tiring companion on the voyage, I
longed that I might meet in a land of strangers a heart
like hers. She returned to go to Cork, and we have
never met since.

" We shall remember this voyage," was the last sen-
tence from her lips that fell on my ear.

" You have parted with a friend," said a solitary
woman, " and are you a stranger ?"

This was a welcome sound, and a few moments7 _<fflB,-
versation told me that the law of Mndnes's iiadnot' died
on the lips of her who ha'd just left meT""
""""£ tempestuous niglit made the sea-sick inmates of
the crowded cabin wish for the day, for there was not
a comfort or convenience to be had ; and when the
bright morning dawned, it brought the unpleasant in-
telligence that we should not see Dublin till the tide
should come in, which would be five in the evening.
But we had neared the bay, and were in sight of the
enchanting harbor, granite buildings, and green sloping
hills of Kingstown.

"I have travelled much," said an intelligent gentle-
man, u but have never found anything surpassing the
beauty of the bay of Dublin and the Cove of Cork."
This bay was in my eye ; and I was in it. Yes ! the
sea was behind me, and the fair Emerald Isle, with the
motley assemblage of beautiful and painful objects, was
before me. I gave myself to rummaging the scanty
knowledge I had of Ireland, to ascertain whether I knew
anything tolerable of its true condition and character, —
and what did I know ?

I knew that between the parallels of 51 and 55 of
north latitude there was a little green spot in the ocean,
defended from its surging waves by bold defying rocks ;
that over this spot are sprinkled mountains, where

CHAP, i.] KINGSTOWN. 23

sparkles the diamond and where sleeps the precious
stone ; glens, where the rich foliage and the plea-
sant flower, and where the morning song of the bird
is blending with the playful rill ; that through its val-
leys and hill sides were imbedded the gladdening fuel
and the rich mine ; that over its lawns and wooded
parks were skipping the light-footed fawn and bound-
ing deer ; that in its fat pastures were grazing the
proud steed and the noble ox ; that on its heathy
mountain slopes the nimble goat and the more timid
sheep find their food. I knew that proud castles and
monasteries, palaces and towers, tell to the passer-by
that here kings and chieftains struggled for dominion,
and priests and prelates contended for religion ; and
that the towering steeple and the more lowly cross
still say that the instinct of worship yet lives — that
here the incense of prayer and the song of praise
continue to go up. I knew that no venomous serpent
was lying in the path of the weary traveller, and that
the purest breezes of heaven were wafted from moun-
tain-top to lowly valley, giving health and vigor to the
life-blood, and causing the " inhabitants of the rock
to sing."

And I had been told, that over this fair landscape
hangs a dark curtain of desolation and death ; that the
harp of Erin lies untouched, save by the finger of
sorrow, to tell what music was once in her strings ; that
the pipe and the dance are only aroused like the last
brightening of the flickering lamp, as it ceases for ever ;
that the tear is on her cheek — she sits desolate, and no
good Samaritan passes that way, to pour in the oil and
wine of consolation. Lover and friend are put far from
her, and she is a hissing and bye-word to those who
should lift her up ; and she has long reaped down the
fields of the rich, while she has tasted none of their
" pleasant bread.'' Small as this little fund of know-
ledge might be, I almost regretted that I had heard the
tale of her woes, lest a morbid sympathy should dim
the true light, and lead me to stumble, if not wholly to
wander from the right path.

24 KINGSTOWN. [CHAP. i.

A lady from Liverpool, whose sable weeds and care-
worn cheeks told that she was a child of sorrow, pro-
posed that, as we were alone, and must pass the day
together, we might go on shore, and visit the monument
erected to King George. We had read the names of
the lords and earls who erected it, examined the prints
of the shoes cut in marble at the foot, where his king-
ship stood when he visited it, and had seated ourselves
upon a block of marble, and there concluded to go into
the railroad office, purchase tickets for Dublin, and
leave our luggage to follow us in the packet. Putting
my hand into my pocket to get a shilling for my
ticket, I missed my pocket-book ; this pocket-book con-
tained all valuables of purse and scrip, and not a far-
thing had I out of it. My character, as far as letters
of introduction nfight go, had gone to the winds ; but
as I expected to pay no lodging or travelling fees by it,
the money was the great concern. This was a sad land-
ing indeed on a foreign shore, where I had already seen
so many asking alms, that I could not hope much for
my share. A a horror of darkness" came over me,
and while I stood petrified, the good woman set off
at full speed towards the block of granite where we had
been sitting. I moped at a distance, muttering, " It
will do no good," while all the sage counsels given me
in New York, of being among strangers, unprotected,
alone, unknown, and uncared for, like spectres stood
in array. My kind helper reached the fatal block,
but no pocket-book was there. u There I told you
so." " What will you do ?" Then for a few moments
we mingled our sorrows ; she had tasted deeply of
worldly afflictions, and could only say, u If you have
no money, you have no friends." At that moment an
aged pilgrim, in ragged garb, called from a distance,
" Have you lost anything ?" " Yes, a pocket-book."
" What color?" " Dark red." " I have found one,
but have not opened it."

Did not I love the old man ? and when I gladly put
a bit into his hand, was I not thrice thankful that I
had lost it, because it put a piece of bread into the
mouth of an honest child of want, and thankful that I

CHAP, i.] DUBLIN. 25

had found it for my own benefit ; and theiiihe. finjp.
,ing, it. had given, so early a proof of Irisli honesty;
for one of the dreadful predictions of my fate was, that
if I was not murdered outright, T should certainly be

- t- T- " ' J "''"' ' ' '-' • .-.'

robbed.

We heard the car, and no time must be lost. On
examination, I found that in pursuit of my pocket-
book, I had lost my ticket ; ran into the office, paid
for another, and lost my keys. After considerable
bustle I found them, and then commenced regulating
government affairs a little, because the railway clerk
required a second shilling for a second ticket. u I am
obliged to do so, madam — another person might find
it, and get the ride ; you have found your pocket-book,
and should be contented ." I saw my mistake, and
determined to learn better manners in future.

Dublin was the next encounter, and a lodging-place
the first concern. A gentleman in Liverpool had given
me the name of a respectable lady, but her rooms were
occupied. But learning that I was an American
stranger, and recommended by a friend, she managed
so as to deposit me comfortably till I could do better.
For a moment all was as I wished ; the modest unpre-
tending looks of the lady, and the unostentatious ap-
pearance of comfort, promised a pleasant resting-place
from the storms I had just left.

Not so. " It is the little foxes that spoil the vines."
Trifles are the busy ants that are constantly building
our molehills of evil and good, showing what and how
we are in the true light. They are the polar-star that
guides us, and the thermometer by which the daily
temperature may be well ascertained.

The brother, who was master of the house, came in
to his dinner, and set all adrift. " She must go to a
hotel ; if she has come to visit Ireland, she will want
such attendance as we cannot give." In vain the kind
sister expostulated, begging him to read my good
letters of introduction. " She must go to a hotel," was
the alpha and omega ; and when the good woman with
a sorrowful face brought the message, my disappoint-
2

26 DUBLIN. [CHAP. i.

ment placed the whole account to the uncompromising
disposition of unfeeling old bachelors.

The " attendance I should want" was afterwards
ludicrously illustrated, oftentimes, in Connaught and the
wild mountains of the coast ; when I found myself
sitting in company with a ragged family, around a
basket of potatoes, taking the " lumper" from my hand.

" What will you do ? will you step across the way,
where lodgers are accommodated, and take my name ?"
I do so, and here found single blessedness exemplified
in two maiden ladies ; and when the stern unyielding
negative was given, " Surely," thought I, " Dublin must
be the deposit where all haters of matrimony resort, to
vent their spleen against l upstart married ladies,' and
4 saucy dirty urchins.7 '

Night was approaching, ray luggage a mile and a half
from me, and it was Saturday ; the kind stranger, who
sympathized so deeply at the misfortune of the pocket-
book, had called to accompany me to the packet, with a
car to procure our luggage, but I had no home but the
street, and where could 1 take it ?

A servant that moment entered and said, u A house
not far distant can give you a room." I went, and was
received ; the happy kind woman was thus opportunely
relieved from the dread of " offending God," by dis-
pleasing her brother.

The kind lady procured a car, and accompanied me
to the packet, much fearing that I should doubt Irish
hospitality, though she had fed me when I first entered
the house. She then returned to the door of my new
lodgings, to see that all was safe, and bade me a kind
good night.

My room was a back parlor on the first floor, rather
gloomy ; all the arrangements were different from my
own home, and it was the first night in Ireland. My
head was pillowed, but my brain took liberties which
it never has ventured upon since ; for when it had
thrown off the scum occasioned by the first day's fer-
mentation, the pool became quiescent.

Monday. — The lady who first entertained me went

CHAP, i.] DUBLIN. 27

out to show me a little of the city, and Cole River
View, where my letter of introduction was to be de-
livered. This letter of introduction, by the way, was
no small item in the account, for I was assured by the
Irish gentlewoman in New York who presented it,
that it would introduce me to all the Protestants in
Dublin of the better class ; but as the poor and the
peasantry were the objects of my visit to the country,
I commenced my acquaintance that morning by saluting
as many of these as I could on the way.

The rich scenery, heightened by a pleasant sun,
threw around a lustre upon all about me, which kept
my imagination awake, diffusing a cheerfulness to the
poor laborer, which made his burden more light ; for
in Ireland it may emphatically be said, " a merry heart
doeth good like a medicine" — the merry burst of wit
following the hasty brush of the tear from the eye, is
always a happy transition, not only to him who sheds
that tear, but to the sympathizing looker-on. God,
who knew what Ireland would suffer, made it so, and
God does all things well.

We reached the tasty cottage to which my letter was
directed, but the person who should break the seal was
absent, and we were invited to call again.

The cabins were my centre of attraction, as I had
never before seen a thatched roof, an earthen floor, or the
manner of cabin house-keeping. I saw new things,
and if I found nothing to imitate, I always found some-
thing to admire. The first we entered was cleanly ;
the dishes tastefully arranged upon a white cupboard,
and a family of young girls in cleanly garb. And had
I visited no other, 1 might have written a romantic
tale on the bright pots and buckets of the Irish pea-
santry. They were employed in a sail-cloth factory.
The next we saw was a pitiful reverse. A slender,
discouraged-looking man was sitting on a stool in one
corner ; a sickly-looking mother, with four ragged
children, in another ; all waiting the boiling of a pot
of potatoes, which certainly fell short of the three

28 DUBLIN. [CHAP. i.

pounds and a half allowed to each man in the poor-
house.

u Do your children go to school, sir ?"

" No, ma'am ; we could not get them clothes to be
dacent on the street. I work at blaichin,' ma'am : I
have eight shillings a week, and pay five pounds for the
cabin, without a fat of land."

I deducted the five pounds from the twenty pounds
sixteen shillings, leaving him fifteen pounds sixteen
shillings to feed, clothe, and warm six beings ; and in
fact I could not find many sovereigns left for their
education. This being my first arithmetical calcula-
tion on Irish labor and economy, I was at a loss to
understand how the thing could be possible ; but having
since seen many things stranger than these, I am pre-
pared to believe in what once would have appeared a
little short of miraculous.

Wednesday. — I was requested to call on Dr. M. Our
interview ended in a favorable manner, for though he
gave me but two fingers, and a long formal bow, instead
of the hearty Irish grasp of the hand, yet he became
talkative when I told him my object, and said I had
chosen the only way to come at the truth ; J^rlreland
had been wholly misrepresented by writers wficPliad
jmlylooked at the^sufface of things. "He took out his
map, showed me tho best route through the country,
gave me some valuable information respecting the con-
dition of the peasantry, and requested me to keep hi
view the condition of servants, as far as I could do so
without prying interference. He recommended me to
notice their sleeping apartments, and to see how many
I should find wholesome and comfortable for human
beings to lodge in through the night.

To my sorrow, in going through the south of Ireland,
I found his words verified not only in the case of ser-
vants' lodging, but their food ; eating their potatoes
morning and night, when the master and mistress were
abundantly blessed with the good things of this life.

Thursday. — I called on Mr. Fleming, a temperance

CHAP, i.] DUBLIN. 29

man, who asked me, u Have you really come to see the
poor of Ireland, and do you expect or want any great
dinners got up for you ?" Assuring him that I neither
wanted great dinners, nor great people to flatter me,
he answered, "Be assured if you have come to
see the poor, the rich will have nothing to say to
you ; and don't be disappointed if they not only treat
you with neglect, but say many wrong things about
you."

Friday. — Visited the annual exhibition of the arts ;
and saw some specimens of taste beyond what I had
anticipated. The bog oak of Ireland (which is found
buried in the earth) when polished, and made into
many articles of taste, is a beautiful specimen not only
of the skill of the mechanic, but of the richness of this
neglected island in its bowels as well as upon its sur-
face. Here were chairs, tables, and small fancy
articles of the most exquisite beauty, which were made
from this wood. Among its highest ornaments was a
standing u Father Mathew administering the pledge to
a peasant," both as large as life ; the peasant kneeling.
The complacent look of the kind apostle of temperance
is a happy illustration of the u peace and good will to
men," which mark the footsteps of this unassuming
man, wherever they can be traced.

Saturday. — Was introduced into the Linen Hall ;
here is a sad memento of Ireland's blighted prospects
of her once proud manufacture of this useful article.
The desolated Hall, with its appendages, which once
included two acres of ground, now and then in some
dusty room shows a sack or two of linen, and in some
dark hall a few piles of linsey-woolsey. Here was the
son of an old inheritor of some of these rooms, when,
in its glory, its coffee room was thronged with men of
business, now standing almost alone in its midst, sell-
ing linen, to tell the inquirer what it once was.

My n^xt visit was to the^^P^opxJBouse, for I had
healT mucE !~ oT'thtrfr^w^fr-maiiaged laws from all but
beggars, who gave them no share in their affections.
The house contained one thousand seven hundred

30 DUBLIN. [CHAP. i.

persons of all ages, and all who were able were at work
or in school. The rooms were well ventilated, and
the floors daily washed. The aged appeared as com-
fortable as care and attention could make them. One
old lady was pointed to us who was a hundred and
six years old ; she could read without glasses, and
had the use of all her faculties. The dinner-hour
was near ; three pounds and a half of potatoes were
poured from a net upon the table for each individual ;
fingers supplied the place of knives and forks, and
the dexterity of a company of urchins, in divesting
the potatoe of its coat, and dabbing it into the salt
upon the table, caused me imprudently to say, " I am
happy, my lads, to see you so pleasantly employed."
" Silence " was written upon the walls, but this unlucky
remark of mine changed the suppressed titter into a
laugh, and the unfortunate wights were turned into
the yard, in spite of all mediation on my part, as being
the aggressor. But the loud laugh and buoyant leap
of these boys testified that the loss of a dinner could
not bring sadness into the hearts of these merry Irish
lads.

The most admirable arrangement was shown in the
beds, which were made of straw, and emptied every
month, and clean straw substituted. The straw taken
out is cut up, and flung into a large pit; the suds from
the laundry are then conveyed to it by a channel, and
it is thus converted into a rich manure. The yearly
profit from this plan is from £130 to <£140 ; this is a
great economy, besides the advantage of cleanliness to
the inmates. This manure is sold for the benefit of the
institution, and a multitude of swine are fattened on
the offals of the food, and are sold for the same pur-
pose. Twice a week soup is given, and stirabout and
buttermilk in the morning ; the aged and invalids have
bread and tea when required.

Letters of introduction I greatly dislike, for two
reasons. They place two parties in a constrained
position ; the individual who presents the letter feels a
kind of dread lost he may be thought a burdensome extra

CHAP, i.] DUBLIN. 31

appendage, which, if received, will only be out of
complaisance to the friend who sent the letter. The
person who receives it may feel that, though he respects
the friend that sent it, yet it comes in the very time
when it should not, when all was hurry of business ;
and how can time be lost in showing picture galleries,
and making pic-nics ? Besides, the mistress may have
a bad servant, the house may be in disorder, and one
night's lodging would turn a room or two topsy-turvy,
and often the visitor is politely handed over to some
neighbor as a compliment, for a fresh introduction.
I have so often been peddled about as a second-hand
article in this way that I have now letters of introduc-
tion of years old, which I never have presented, and
never shall.

Believing that the actors alone in the following tra-
gedy will be the only persons who will understand who
I mean, I shall not spare to tell the whole truth. I
had promised to accompany the young ladies home
from church, and dine with them, when the letter of
introduction was left ; I did so, and was introduced to
a spot where the style of house and lands showed them
to be a vestige of an aristocratic race. The parent
had gone down to the dust, leaving a son and three
daughters on the paternal estate, with all the insignia
of comfort around them. They were of the Estab-
lished Church, lofty in their views, great haters of the
low Irish, and quite careful that the Apostle's injunc-
tions should be religiously observed, where servants are
required to u be obedient to their masters."

" I receive you," said the sister to whom the letter
was directed, u on the strength of the note you brought ;
but I must be candid in saying, I am not partial to the
Americans, because they keep up no distinction of rank,
and eat with their servants."

Dinner was soon brought, when a maiden lady, whose
age had been stationary probably for the last twenty
years, was introduced. This lady had seen enough of
the world to make her vain, possessed enough of its
wealth to make her proud, and had religion enough to

39 DUBLIN. [CHAP. i.

make her a boasting pharisee. I soon knew I had
much to fear and little to gain, for she called for a new
bottle of wine to be opened, as the doctor told her she
must always use a little at her dinner, or brandy, if
she preferred it; for she was bilious. " See, madam,"
said she to me, " our Saviour made wine, as the mar-
riage could not be celebrated without it ; and Paul said
to Timothy, i Use a little wine for your often infirmi-
ties.' Do you see, madam, God has made all these
things for our comfort" — taking a glass with much relish
at the same time. Seeing me decline a plate of flesh,
" What ! don't you take meat ? Have the doctors
told you it's bad for you ? Why, do you know that
meat was given on purpose for the benefit of man ?"
Here followed an unbroken lecture on the creation, the
command given to Adam to control the beasts of the
field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea, and
make them his food. Then the practice of our Saviour.
" So you see, madam, I have the Bible at my tongue's
end ; and here's Miss W— , a good Christian, a church-
going woman. Come now, don't go to church to-night.
You came from America, and can tell us much about it.
This would do us more good than a sermon. Come,
come, what do you say to all this ?"

Not a word had been uttered to interrupt this pell-
mell volubility, when the presiding sister said, " Mrs.
1ST. is a disciple of Mr. Graham, and perhaps would
give us a little lecture on flesh eating ?" " O !" cried
the antiquated heroine, clapping her hands, " that's it
— that's the thing — that's the thing ! " Sipping her wine
again, " Come," nodding her head, " you may make a
convert of me ; come, I'm ready. Now begin. Hear,
hear!" The uproar became quite theatrical, for all
joined in the chorus of " Hear, hear ! Begin, begin!"
To give a little rebuke, but more to make an honora-
ble escape, I asked, " How do you spend your Sabbaths ?
Perhaps something else would be better." All with
one voice cried out, " Give us a lecture — a Bible lec-
ture on flesh eating — now ! now ! and we will be all
attention." The lecture commenced, when soon tho

CHAP, i.j DUBLIN. 33

whole four pounced upon me, and with one vociferous
tumult, crying and clapping their hands, and the chief
speaker exclaiming, " Now ! now ! we have got it —
Hear ! hear ! Why now, you must be a fool^ or out of
your mind. I thought you were in a decline, you looked
so emaciated and so woe-begone."

In self-defence 1 was obliged to say, " You will
excuse me from making any attempts to proceed. I
sincerely think the lady who has been speaking must be
insane, or half intoxicated." This finished the battle ;
the ridicule was turned into rage ; I left the table, fol-
lowed by the youngest sister, and we both went into the
garden. Apologising for the warmth of the lady, she
said, " you must know that she is highly respectable."
" But lacks good breeding," I continued. " No in-
deed," rejoined the miss.

The eldest sister made the same apologies in essence,
and I remarked, that the conduct I had seen to-day in
this house would have disgraced the lowest American
table, even where servants might be permitted to take a
seat ! I then took my bonnet and shawl, made my
salaam, and departed.

This, reader, was my first letter of introduction, and
it was a letter which, when given me in New York, I
was assured was the very one that would introduce me
into the first Protestant society in Dublin.

Truly, I never had spent the hours of a Sabbath so
profanely in my life. I was vexed at myself, and dis-
gusted with the spider-web education of females in the
higher walks of life ; but I was not discouraged ;
neither did I rail at all Ireland, or tax her fair daugh-
ters with being the most affected, the most impudent,
and the most ignorant of all others. I have not found
it so, though this specimen in a family of high preten-
sions was then and still is a problem quite difficult to
solve.

On Wednesday morning I walked with a young lady
to the Phoenix Park. On our way we met many inte-
resting things, which made me inquire, who shall heal
the wounds of bleeding, dying Ireland ? So far
2*

DUBLIN. [CHAP. i.

as taste of man and nature's best skill could make it,
every spot is full of interest, but every pleasant object
in Ireland is dashed with some dark shade, which
defaces, if it does not entirely put out, the beauties of
the picture. In my pleasant morning walks in the
land of my fathers, I had never been accustomed to
meet the pale-faced dejected mother, and the ragged
child, begging " a halfpenny for a bit of bread." This
morning a modest-looking woman approached with a
basket of oranges, and without giving her the pain of
a refusal, I said, u I am sorry, ma'am, I have not a
penny to buy an orange." I then asked,

" Have you a family ?"

" Yes, ma'am ; and their father's been dead this
eight months, and they are all helpless around my
feet."

" Have you been to breakfast ?"

" No, ma'am, I come out to get a bit, if I could sell
a little of these. A morsel will not cross the lips of
one of us till it is bought by these."

" How much do you make a day ?"

" Sometimes sixpence, but moretimes not so much."

As I passed on, " sometimes sixpence, but more-
times not so much," sounded in my ears ; and yet this
to Dublin ears would scarcely be called a cry of dis-
tress, or the speaker an object of compassion. And
often have I been answered, when pleading for the
poor, " What's that ? They are used to it." " Used
to it !" The longer the poor have suffered, and the
lower they have fallen, the more haste should be made
to rescue them.

As I returned, the novel inscription of " ASYLUM
FOR UNMARRIED LADIES," on the plate of a door, at-
tracted my attention ; and I begged the privilege of
visiting it. I found this was an institution for single
females of respectable character, who were advanced
in life, whose means were limited. Here they are pro-
vided with shelter, fuel, lights, and furniture ; twenty-
one females, with every comfort that order and clean-
liness could bestow, were here. Each manages her

CHAP, ii.] DUBLIN. 35

own affairs, such as cooking and taking care of her
clothes, as she chooses, — as much so as if in her own
house ; and such as are able are expected to pay 2s. 6d.
per week. This makes them feel an independence
which persons in all grades are fond of claiming. Pity,
great pity, that bachelors are not taxed with all these
expenses, for they above all other men demand the
most attention from females when age advances. This
institution was formed by two or three young females,
and much credit do they deserve for their laudable
undertaking. May they find as good a shelter if they
shall ever need one !

CHAPTER II.

Dialogues with the Poor— An English Prophecy— Clontarf Castle— Plan for the
Relief of the Destitute— A Dying Saint— Journey to Tullamore— Family Af-
fliction— Visits to the Poor — The Jail — The Poorhouse — Irish Beggars — A
Scene on leaving Tullamore — Return to Dublin — Extraordinary Spectacle on
the Road — Connaught Laborers — The Two Convicts — A Man's Merit cannot
be judged by his Coat — Another Visit to the Dying — A Military Congregation.

" COME, ladies, the morning is sunny. You have
taken your tea, and a little excursion into the outskirts,
where the air is free and balmy, will do you good. A
kind look and word to the poor of this world would
cost but little, and it might resuscitate some dying
hope, and wipe some falling tear from the widow's or
orphan's eye." I must go alone, and my first letter of
introduction meeting such a sad repulse, I fortunately
substituted u American stranger." It was a day of in-
terest, not because I was in a great city, not because
I saw squalid poverty in every street, but because I
saw this poverty standing out in a kind of self-pos-
sessed freedom, which seemed to say, " Though I am
divested of my beauty, though I am shorn of my
strength, there is in me a germ of life that shall one
day come forth." Its very antiquity commanded re-

36 DUBLIN. [CHAP. n.

spect. " Do you think," said a grey-haired old man,
" that Ireland will ever see a good day ? Though my
ould eyes will never see it, my children's may ; for
God is good."

He was leaning upon a wall, covered with rags of
various colors, yet cheerful and uncomplaining.

" And what, sure, sent you here ?" cried a wretched
looking woman, bearing a little mug of beer. " You
must be going astray in yer mind to leave so fine a
country. The Irish are all kilt, ma'am. They can get
no work and no bread."

" But why do you buy this beer if you have no
bread ?"

" Ah ! I've a pain in the liver, and it's for my
strength I take it."

"Where do you live?"

" I don't live nowhere ; I'm only strugglin' to get
my bit ;" at the same time sitting upon the ground,
and saying to herself, li God save her, the cratur, she's
goin' astray in her mind."

I went into cabins of filth, and I went into cabins of
the greatest cleanliness, whose white-washed walls and
nicely scoured stools said that " she that looketh well
to the ways of her household" lives here. All ages
saluted me as the American stranger, . and said one,
" Ye'r a wonderful body ; and did you come alone ?
Oh ! America is a beautiful country, and if I was there
I would get the mate." Seeing a repeal button in the
coat of a man standing by his car, I inquired, " Do you
find employment, sir ?"

" But little, ma'am ; I suffer much, and get little.
O'Connell has worked hard for us, and is now in jail.
I'm waitin' here for a job, and the thief of a fellow
won't get on to my car with my repeal button in sight.
But I will wear it. Oh ! the country's dyin' ; it's
starvin' ; it's kilt. And O'Connell wont let us fight,
and I 'spose that's the best way."

A cleanly woman, knitting upon a wall, told me she
was English ; had been in Dublin a year ; her health
was poor, and she had come out for an airing. " But oh !

CHAP. ii.J DUBLIN. 37

these miserable beggars. They think they shall get
free ; but England is so grabbing they never will ;
and besides there is an ancient prophecy that England
is to fight and conquer the whole world, and give them
all the gospel."

" Where did you find this prophecy ?"

" They say it's in the Bible."

" To what church do you belong ?"

" To the Protestant."

" You should read the Bible for yourself, and see if
you can find such a prophecy."

" I've a prayer-book" —

Leaving this learned theologian, I found a woman
sitting upon a stone, with a basket of gooseberries by
her side, from which she had sold but three halfpence
farthing's worth since the preceding morning.

" I have three children to feed," said she, " and God
knows how I can do it ; when they were babies around
my feet, I could feed 'em, and put decent clothes on
their bodies ; but now I can get no work."

For a halfpenny she poured twice the value into my
bag, which I refused ; when, with the tear in her eye,
she said, " You would give more if you had it, and you
speak a kind word to the poor ; and what's a handful
of gooseberries ?" Turning to the old men who were
breaking stones, I said to them, " You are aged, and
how much do you have for this labor ?"

" Sixpence ha'penny a day, ma'am."

"Is that all?"

" Ah ! that is better than idleness," said the younger,
" and my wife gets a job now and then which helps us
a little."

Clontarf Castle was now in sight ; at its gate was a
surly porter rudely abusing a poor woman for entering
its enclosure. The reader may be reminded that a
faded dress, tattered shoes, and weather-beaten bonnet,
have no right through the gate of any gentleman's
estate ; and looking about upon my own, at the same
time using my pass-word, I hoped a more ready en-
trance would be granted.

38 DUBLIN. [CHAP. 11.

" I am sorry, ma'am, I cannot let you in, as you are
an American ; but none can enter without a pass."

" Your master, sir, has a splendid estate, but I should
prefer being a little poorer than the steward of all
this."

" Not I : if the rich can't be happy, I don't know
who can. Why, this man has his coach-and-four, his
horses for hunting, his good dinners and wine, and
what has he but comfort ?"

" But, sir, a good conscience is better than all this."

" What have we to do with that? We're all born,
but we ain't all buried ; and what's behind there is
nothing to us."

The associations about the castle were such, that my
disappointment was considerable, that I would not be
admitted. Colman's graphic description of a battle
fought there in the year 1014, which was more than
awful, had left upon me such an impression, that I
wished much to see the spot. A little girl, filthy and
ragged, carrying a dirty cloth containing a few raw
potatoes, approached with a courtesy, saying, u Lady,
I am very hungry ; I hav'n't had one mouthful to eat
since yesterday morning. "

" Do you tell me the truth ?"

" I do, lady."

Her voice faltered, and a gush of tears relieved her.

" I have no father or mother, and live with a grand-
mother by the bridge. The good folks, ma'am, have
certainly gone out of this world. They hunt me from
their doors, and hav'n't given me one morsel to-day."

" And have you had no breakfast to-day ?"

li Not so much as would fill a bird's eye, lady ; I tell
ye the truth."

She kept close to me, and continued chattering in
the most simple manner, and wondering what ailed the
world, and what would become of her, saying, " O, I'm
so hungry !"

In the evening, I sat down " to gather up the frag-
ments" of the day. I had seen painful things, I had
seen pleasant things, and though all were common

CHAP. ii.J DUBLIN. 39

events, yet out of the varied materials I had put
up this little parcel as worthy a second reviewal.
" What ought to be done can be done." This ignorance,
this hunger, this .patient double-distilled misery sit
with a bad grace on a benevolent Christian city like
Dublin. But you answer, " It was always so, and al-
ways will."

Suppose fifty ladies in this city, who have leisure,
should go out at ten in the morning, and mingle pro-
miscuously with the poor upon the street, take their
number, ascertain who is worthy, and who is unworthy ;
who need instruction, and who will receive it ; who
are idle from necessity, and who from choice ; who
can do one kind of work, and who another, and who
can do nothing at all ; who are old, and who are sickly ;
who can go to a place of worship, and who cannot, &c.
By four o'clock in the afternoon each lady could ascer-
tain the true condition of twenty persons at least,
making in all a thousand, who might be truly deserv-
ing, and who, with a little assistance of work and ne-
cessaries, would soon be placed beyond want. But be
careful that the payment be a full equivalent. Nothing
gives the industrious honest poor man more encourage-
ment than this ; it makes him hope ; he sees something
tangible before him ; he sees he may yet have a decent
garment and a comfortable meal, independent of his
rent ; and he feels that he may sleep without the
dreadful torment of a debtor's pillow. Let this going
out into the " high-ways and hedges" be continued, and
how many disconsolate hearts could be lifted up ; how
many tears would be wiped from the cheek of the
orphan, and how many blessings from the lips of those
who are ready to perish would be poured forth. This
has been done, and can be done again. Dublin stands
nobly prominent in her charitable institutions ; there
are none, save the poor sailor, but have a place in
her kind provisions for the destitute ; still there is much
land to be possessed.

Monday, July. — In company with a young lady,
visited the cabin of a poor dying saint. She stood on

40 TULLAMORE. [CHAP. 11.

that narrow neck of land between the two worlds,
which to the poor sinner is a fearful position, but to
her it was like the last step to land from a tempes-
tuous voyage, where she would meet her best kindred.
Her earthly friends had forsaken her, because she had
left the Romish church, and though griping poverty
was pinching her five little ones, and she must leave
them to a selfish world, yet she said, " I have not one
anxious thought about them. Jesus, " she emphati-
cally added, " does all things well ; and last night he
gave me such a cluster of light, that the whole room
was enlightened by his presence j and soon, yes, soon
I shall see him as he is." How has Christ honored
poverty, and how he delights to dwell with the poor and
contrite !

Tuesday, July 2d. — Must leave for Tullamore. I
had removed my lodgings from the first kind house
where I stopped, and had found in the second all that
hospitality which is so congenial to a stranger, and
was becoming much attached to Dublin ; but rest was
not my errand to Ireland, and the kind daughters of
the family accompanied me at seven in the morning to
the fly-boat, where I was packed as tight as live
stock could be in any but a slave ship. Here I found
a company of would-be intelligent Irish and English
aristocrats, who, on "both sides of the house," were
professed enemies to the poor Irish, calling them a com-
pany of low, vulgar, lazy wretches, who prefer beggary
to work, and filth to cleanliness. How much of this may
be true I pretend not to decide, but this may be safely
hazarded, that it is an established law of our nature to
hate those we oppress. The American slaveholder, while
he keeps his foot upon the slave, despises him for his
degradation, and while he withholds a knowledge of
letters, and closes the Bible against him, hates him be-
cause he is ignorant and a heathen. In eight hours we
reached Tullamore, a distance of fifty miles, and the
first novelty was the market-place.

The appearance of the people here was not prepos-
sessing, for there was not one among them decently

CHAP, ii.] TULLAMORE. 41

clad, and everything indicated that a last effort had
been made to set off the merchandise to the best ad-
vantage, while the looks of the seller seemed to say,
" We have toiled all day, and caught nothing."

A son of the lady to whom I had letters, conducted
me to the terrace^- and as the letters were from her
daughter in America, I expected a cordial reception,
and was not disappointed. Tinctured a little with
aristocracy, well educated, and disciplined by family
disappointments, her mind had become chastened, and
she appeared as if struggling to support an independ-
ence which a heart sinking under silent grief could
not long sustain. The children were well trained, and
had been educated mostly at home by herself. Her
husband was of a good family, and had speculated her
property away, and as the last resource fled to that
" house of refuge," America ; and an absence of three
years, without sending her any relief, left suspicions
on her mind that all was not well. I had seen her
daughter in New York, who had followed her father
thither, and she begged me to search out the family in
Ireland, and do what I could to comfort her mother.
My errand was a painful one, — family troubles can
seldom be mitigated by foreign legislation ; and while
this noble minded afflicted woman made full, meaning,
but indirect inquiries, her voice faltered, the tear
was in her eye, and for a moment I regretted that I
had complied with her daughter's request. Her well-
regulated family being assembled around the family
altar, she read an appropriate prayer with practical
observations, adding suitable ones of her own, which
made the devotions pleasant to me, for it savored of a
heart that had been made better by the things it had
been called to suffer.

The next morning, the twin daughters of eleven
years accompanied me into a lane to see the poor.
Here 1 found these lovely girls had long been ac-
quainted, for they inquired of a poor old man about
the growth of a pig, and kindly patted the well known
pets of donkeys, goats, and dogs, calling them all by

42 TULLAMORE. [CHAP. n.

name, while the mistress went into the garden to pluck
a bouquet for the fine girls, who, she assured me, were
the smartest in the parish.

I had always heard the Irish were celebrated for
giving the pig an eminent berth in their cabins, and
was a little disappointed to find that though it was
really so, yet there was some nicety of arrangement
in all this ; for in two cabins I found a pig in a corner
snugly cribbed, with a lattice work around him, a bed
of clean straw under him, and a pot of food standing
near the door of his house, to which he might go out
and in at option. And in both these huts, though the
floors were nothing but the ground, yet these were
well swept ; a peat fire was smouldering on clean
hearths, and the delf was tastefully arranged upon the
rude shelves. An old cobbler sat with his lap-stone,
and said he could make one and six and one and ten
pence a day, arid he took care of the bit of ground at
the rear of his cabin for the rent of it. u My wife,
praise be to God, is dead, but I can get a comfortable
bit for my children." An old blind man of seventy-
two, sitting at the door of his cabin, thanked God that
he had no right to complain, though he had seen better
days ; for he had " two kind girls, who, when they
had done all in and out of the cabin, got little jobs now
and then, which kept the bread in all their mouths."
On looking into the cabin, nothing could be cleaner.
Here, too, the family pig was snoring snugly in his
crib in one corner of the room ; and here, in all
justice, I must say that these pigs were well dis-
ciplined, for when one of them attempted to thrust his
nose into a vessel not belonging to him, he was called
a dirty pig, and commanded to go to his own kettle,
which he did as tamely as a child or a dog would have
done.

Another cabin attracted us by the tidy white aprons
upon two little girls who were standing at the door,
and their nicely attired mother, with clean cap and
handkerchief, who welcomed me heartily to Ireland.
On my commending her for her cleanliness, she said,

CHAP, ii.] TULLAMORE. 43

" Plase God, poor folks should be a little tidy who
have nothing else to set 'em off. Would ye walk into
the garden ? May be ye'd like a rose or two." We wil-
lingly complied, and found an acre of kitchen garden
well cultivated, with a few flowers interspersed, which
they rented for nine pounds, and sold the avails for
the support of the family. She plucked her fairest
roses and ripest gooseberries, and bade me God speed,
long life, and a safe return to my own country.

I returned from this lane much gratified by the
cleanliness, simplicity, and comfort of this humble
people, for I had ever associated a mud wall, a thatched
roof, and a pig as an inmate, with all that was wretched
in the extreme ; and I had, so far as this lane could
speak, abundant evidence that a very little will make
the Irish content, and even happy.

In the afternoon I visited the jail, a building, with
its appendages, including an acre and a half of land.
It^contained eighty-one prisoners ; seventeen had been
that morning sent to Dublin for transportation.
They were all at work ; some cracking stones, some
making shoes, and others tailoring or weaving.
Their food is one pound of stirabout, and milk in the
morning, and four pounds of potatoes for dinner.
There are two hospitals, one for males and the other
for females. The drop where criminals arc executed is
in front ; four had suffered upon it within the last two
years.

From the prison I went to the poor-house, which
was conducted on the same principle as that of Dub-
lin ; but the funds were so low that but three hundred
could be accommodated, and multitudes of the poor
were suffering upon the streets. A nourishing school
was in operation, the specimens of writing doing honor
to the teachers. The children are fed three times a
day ; they get a noggin of milk at each meal, with
porridge in the morning, potatoes at noon, and bread at
night.

The next day rain kept me within doors, and I had
the painful annoyance of seeing beggars constantly

44 TULLAMORE. [CHAP. n.

walking back and forwards before the parlor window ;
nor would they depart, though often told they could
have nothing. The sister, who supported the family
of her brother-in-law, now returned from Dublin. She
was a woman of some worth, and apparently possessing
much piety. The poor afflicted wife and mother, as
soon as her sister returned, and the excitement abated,
became unwell, imputing the cause to her visit at the
poor-house ; but sickness of the heart was the mover of
it all. In the morning, when I went to bid her adieu,
she answered not a word, but looked as if in a state of
deep despondency : —

" When woman droops, she droops in silence ;
The canker grief gnaws stealthily, but sure j
The pallid cheek, the sunken eye alone
Give note of death's dire work within."

Report has said something of the class of beggars in
Ireland ; but her busy tongue, extravagant as she often
is, could not exaggerate here. It was scarcely eight
o'clock when I reached the coach, but the beggars had
assembled before me ; for the going out of this vehicle
is the hey-day of expectation. To them a foreigner,
or a stranger, whom their shrewdness will readily de-
tect, is a kind of common plunder, and escape is a
hopeless undertaking. The coach was to leave at half-
past eight, and while I stood waiting, I saw some half
dozen of men with spades standing in a cluster, and
inquired if they had work for the day. " Not a ha-
porth, but we are hoping to get some." I asked what
was the price of labor. " From six to tenpence, and
we don't get work half the time at this." u And does
this support you ?" UO ma'am," said an old man,
leaning on his shovel, " we hope to see better days,
plase God ; it's but a sorry bit this gives us." " Father
Mathewhas done much for you." "Yes, praise be to
God, as early as now in the morning, the people round
here, standing as they do now, would be cursin' and
fightin' ; but now, thank God, there's not a word from
their lips."

CHAP, ii.] TULLAMORE. 45

The chief centre of attraction was now where we
stood, as I was a stranger. They attacked me with,
u God bless you," " a penny, if you plase, lady," " a
ha'penny for a poor woman and child, whose father is
dead this twelvemonth," " one haporth for an old man,"
and " the price of bread for a poor boy ;" the boy
grasping my clothes, and holding fast, in spite of my
efforts to disengage myself — the cries and importunities
redoubling, while, like swarming bees, they sallied out
from every quarter, till the crowd was immense. In
vain I preached loyalty to the government, temperance,
and peace ; my voice was lost in the clamor of u plase,
lady, it's the haporth ye'll give us, thank God.'' The
overseer of the coach, from his window seeing my
dilemma, hastened out, and kindly begged me to get
upon the coach, where they could not annoy me so
seriously. He helped me aloft. Laborers and beg-
gars, some on crutches, some with two legs, and some
with one, mostly clad in coats of divers colors, varie-
gated with all shades and hues ; boys with a garment
suspended from the hips, hanging in strips, making a
kind of frill — these all followed in pursuit. By the
time I was well adjusted, a sea of upturned faces, some
with hats and caps in hand, to catch the falling penny,
lavished all sorts of blessings on America and the
kind lady who had come to see them, who as yet had
not given them a farthing. Waving my hand for a
moment, all was silent. 1 endeavored to count them ;
there were about two hundred and twenty, one half at
least beggars. The huddling became so confused that
I could not proceed, and 1 resorted to exhortation,
telling them to be true to their young queen ; that
they had a Father Mathew to keep them sober ; a
never-tiring friend in O'Connell, who said he would
" rot in prison for them if need be ;" and under all
these encouragements, they must be patient. " That
we will, lady, and the blessin' of Almighty God be on
ye, and the prayers of the blessed Vargin, if ye'll give
us the penny." The scene had now become, to say the
least, ludicrous, "pSinFul, " andTmseemly^ 1 TiaeT travelled

46 TULLAMORE. [CHAP. 11.

by sea and by land among the savages of my own
country, the poor abused slaves on the plantations, the
degraded, untutored native'Canadians ; but this eclipsed
the whole. I looked down upon the forbidding mass,
and saw every lineament of talent, every praiseworthy
I and noble quality, every soul-speaking glance of the
eye, every Jbejmtv^of symmetry, that God's image^ever
* possessed, united with every disgusting, pitiable incon-
"gratty thalTTm agination could depict. Mu'cli did I
wish that the good queen would leave her throne for
the one on which I was sitting, and see for a few mo-
ments her subjects, her loyal Irish subjects, as they
really are, disgusting to refined eyes as it might be.
She must, she would pity, and though her administra-
tion had done nothing to produce this state of things,
yet her administration should and could produce some-
thing better. I begged the coachman to make speed,
knowing that a few pennies dropped among them
would endanger faces and eyes, if not pull me from
the coach ; and the promise was given, that when my
bag of money should come from America, part of it at
least should be poured down upon them. " Faith,"
cried a poor woman with a dirty urchin hanging to
her, " and ye'll be here no more, if the bag's to come
with ye." The coachman attached his horses, leaving
the whole town with the troop of ragamuffins swing-
ing hats and caps, cheering America and the queen,
shouting and calling for a penny till we were out of
hearing.

When we had well escaped, " What is this ?" I begged
the coachman to tell me. " It is the case of all Ireland
wherever you travel ; a fine country, but cursed with
bad laws." " But whence could all these miserable
objects that swarmed around the coach proceed?"
" From the mountains and places around ; they all
know the time that the coach goes out, and are always
in readiness ; they are not all street beggars, only try-
ing their hand at the coaches and canal-boats."

Tullamore is the assize town of the King's county ;
it is situated nearly in the centre of the bog of Allen,

CHAP. ii.J RETURN TO DUBLIN. 47

and the proprietor, the Earl of Charleville, has done
much to improve it. Good schools are established,
and the poor in the town are more comfortable than
in many others in the vicinity. The road lay from
Tullamore through a part of King's county and Kil-
dare, to Dublin, a distance of fifty miles ; and forty-
five of this it was lined on each side with hawthorn
and cinnamon-brier hedges. The brier was in full
bloom ; the air had been purified by the preceding
day's rain ; and the fragrance of the sweet brier, united
with that of the new-mown grass, which lay here and
there as we passed, made a day's ride of the pleasantest
I ever enjoyed, so far as sweetness of air and beauty
of scenery were concerned. But the beggars we had
left, and the beggars that mc-FtiSf at" every village where
^he coach stopped, made me dread the appearance .of a
Inilnan creature". We passed the most beautifully cul-
tivated fields, where not a stone or a stump could be seen,
and saw gardens joined to the most forbidding-looking
hovels, where roses were blooming upon the walls,
and even upon many a thatch were waving flowers of
variegated beauty ; so that tin-,, unaccustomed stranger/
mu^jisk^J^ contrajlfctioji ?

How can such taste for farming and gardening _ be
blended with such unseemly rags, such^ debased mincls,
Jiml such a lack of sclf-resp'c'ct as many of these beings
manifest ?;:" What must be the state of tliat people, who
can walk and breathe in" su'cH "a paradise of delights,
and not be assimilated in some measure to the more
"jinan enchanting prospects around tKern r'v

"Look! look!" said the; coachman, "if you'd ,seo
a sight." The sight should not be recorded, for the
credit of human nature ; but how can the evils and
deformities of Ireland be known,"it tliey "TEffiltiOjpex-
posed ? and how can eyes that have ""always been look-
ing out upon these things, dimmed as they must be
by constant use and the fogs of national pride and
national self-complacency, see these discrepancies with
so clear a vision as the less accustome^ and the less
interested can see them? But to the (sight?) At our

48 RETURN TO DUBLIN. [CHAP. n.

left was an old ragged woman, bending beneath a
huge pack, and fastened upon that was a boy of
thirteen (as the coachman and a passenger averred, for
they both knew him) with legs entirely naked, not
only hanging at full length, but dexterously applied to
the old woman his mother, when he wished her to
hasten her speed, while he held his cap in hand
towards the coach for pennies. This was allowed by
the mother to excite compassion, as well as to indulge
the lad, for the passenger observed that he would not
walk. He had once seen the mother put him down,
I when he leaped upon a stile, and thence to her back,
f giving her a kick, saying, " There now, go on, Miss
Lucy Longford."

We next saw a caravan of Connaught laborers, on
their way to England to get work. One horse was
drawing nine of these men, with a woman sitting
among this score of legs, on the bottom of the cart ;
and the coachman assured us that the " owner of her"
was the one between whose feet she was sitting. He
further informed me, that the practice of these people
is to go out to gather the English harvest, which
arrives before the Irish, and at the same time wife and
children go out to beg. The cabin-door is fastened,
and they agree to meet there on a certain time, bring-
ing home the avails of the labor, and they go in to-
gether at the unfastening of the cabin.

Stopping at a village, a woman presented a basket
of oranges, and a troop of beggars fell upon me as
-..suddenly as though dropped from the clouds, demand-
ing the pennies I had received in change for the orange.
And so clamorous were they, that 1 felt myself in
danger, and distributed all 1 had, which did not sup-
ply the whole. One was so rude in pulling me, that I
should certainly have called for the police, if the coach-
man had not relieved me by applying his whip, and
I leaving her behind.

Upon the back seat of the coach were two convicts
sentenced to transportation, chained together, with
three policemen as a guard. The eldest was a

CHAP, ii.j DUBLIN. 49

hardened veteran, singing merrily as we proceeded,
with roses stuck in his cap. The younger, a youth of
about eighteen, was sad, looking as if he was on the
verge of bursting into tears. The sight was affecting.
Poor boy ! he might be fatherless, but have a mother
whose heart has doated on him, and who still yearns
over him ; while, in some unguarded hour, the fatal
deed has been done, which severs him not only from her,
but from his country for ever ; which makes him a dis-
graced exile, and drives him further into the thick
meshes of sin and temptatipn.

When we arrived at Dublin, in Barrack-street, where
the convicts were to exchange carriages, the host of
beggars that surrounded us could only be equalled by
the throng at Tullamore ; and it is a matter of wonder
how, at a moment's warning, such a herd of vagrants
can be collected. They are like Pharaoh's frogs ; they
compass the whole length and breadth of the land,
and are almost as much to be dreaded as his whole
ten plagues ; they leave you no room for escape on
any hand ; dodge where you will, they are on the spot,
and the ill-fated stranger needs a fathomless bag, who
ventures on a tour among these hunger-armed as-
sailants.

The passenger who accompanied us proved most
happily that a man's merit cannot be judged by his
coat. His was so much defaced, that when I found ^ vKj *
him seated near ino,~I felt a little annoyed. I was af- j
'terwards ashamed of myself for this weakness, for I
found in the course of conversation, that he was well
read in the history of his country, had travelled out of
sight of the smoke of his own cabin, loved Ireland,
appreciated its virtues, and acknowledged its faults ;
and though he was no enemy to O'Connell, yet re-
peal was not his hobby. If their bogs could be drain-
ed, their mines explored, their waste land reclaimed,
and the laborer well paid for his toil, he would as
willingly be under the English crown as that of the
Irish. Peace was his motto ; " If we cannot have
our rights without bloodshed," he added, " let us die
3

50 DUBLIN. [CHAP. n.

oppressed and hated as we are." He alighted from
the coach, while the horses were being exchanged, and
unasked returned with a list of every place from Tulla-

lore to Dublin, written in a most neat and legible hand.

ly mistake in this man gave me a valuable hint, which

las been of much service in my long tour through

te country.

When the evening hour of reflection, in my own
room, found me alone, I looked back upon the events of
the day, and though the reader may see little in it that
is interesting, yet to me it was a rich and valuable one.
It was the last day of the first excursion I had made in
Ireland, and it had given me in brief detail much of its
true history. The heart-stricken woman whose house I
had left in the morning, the laborers and beggars at
the coach, the enchanting scenery and exhilarating air,
the old woman and son, the Connaught men, the con-
victs and passenger, would each make a valuable chap-
ter on the suffering, crime, beauty, deformity, and in-
telligence of Ireland.

" A mighty maze, but not without a plan."

The next morning I visited the sick saint, whose
animated cheerful countenance told that the peace that
passeth all understanding reigned within. To the
question, " How became you a Christian ?" she an-
swered, u God Almighty made me one ; yes, praised
be his name, when I was a great sinner, he called
me."

" How different," said the young lady, as we passed
out, " is Christ's teaching from man's. She makes no
mention of prayers, going to church, or reading the
Scriptures, but simply, ' God Almighty made me a
Christian.'"

My young companion then accompanied me to Irish-
town, and we heard a sermon from " Go ye into the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The
organ and music were excellent and appropriate, and
the Queen's regiment, cap-a-pie in warlike habiliments
with furbished guns and bayonets in their pews, made

CHAP, in.] CO. OF WICKLOW. 51

a most peculiar set-off to the principles of the text,
which are " peace and good will to men." But never
did a hundred of young soldiers in any house of God
do more credit to good air, food, and exercise, than did
these. Each had his prayer-book, and read with as
much apparent devotion as though the success of a bat-
tle depended on it.

CHAPTER III.

Visit to the County of Wicklow— A Tremendous Coach-load— Horrors of the
Journey — Safe Arrival and kind Reception — A Happy Family — Shelton Abbey
— Arklow— Beautiful Scenery — Arklow Fishermen— Domestic Turmoil— Rath-
drum— The Vale of Avoca— Wicklow Gold Mines— A Hungry Man— An Old
War Horse— A Scriptural Answer — Visit to a Rectory.

ON Wednesday morning, with my good friend at Dor-
set-street, I found myself at the coach at half-past
five. She left me, and an hour too soon prepared me
a little for the day's strange movements which were
before me. The hideous loads of trunks, chests, ham-
pers, sacks, and baskets, which for an hour were in
ominous fixings and re-fixings, gave fearful note of
preparation. u Where shall I sit ? — My trunk must be
here — My band-box will be all jammed up — And wont
you please make a little room for my legs ?" began
half an hour before the horses were brought, while I
at a respectable distance stood with basket in hand,
waiting a clearance of the ladder, that I might ascend.
Seeing an opening I improved it, and fixed myself in
mid air with one foot on terra firma, the other seeking
rest and finding none. And now the full tide of battle
set in. I had been seated by the coachman in a few
inches of space, just left by an old fat man in breeches
who had moved to have a trunk put up ; and when he
turned about for his seat, and found it filled, " You
have got my place, ma'am. " Sit still," jogged another

52 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. in.

fat Irishman, " make sure of what you've got ; and here,
sir, you can take it quite easy on the top." Behind us
was a kind of scaffolding erected, of sufficient width
to seat two. Here, after much grumbling, the old man
with his bundle was adjusted, his footstool the necks of
each of us, who in turn handed or whirled his heels
to the next, while the poor man ever and anon was
heard to say, in a subdued tone, u That woman's
got my sate." " Be aisy," said my fat neighbor at
the left, when 1 gave signs of pity for the old man.
"He's doing quite well." And now the storm was
working into a tornado. A modest-looking young
girl, who had waited patiently to be seated (for all this
time we had not stirred an inch from the door) asked
what she should do. " What shall you do ?" said the
boor of a coachman. "Sit where you promised, or
don't sit at all, on the top of the luggage." There was
no alternative; what with hoisting from below, and
the old man pulling from above, she was seated upon
her perilous throne, while we had a second pair of
heels to dispose of, to the no small annoyance of the
poor man on my left, who did not like to make the
same rude arrangement of them as he made of the old
gentleman's.

We had proceeded a few miles, with nineteen upon
the top, and one appended to the back, when a loud
call from a car arrested us, with, " Can you take a few
more passengers ?''

"As many as you please," answered the glad driver.
The clamor, the entreaties, and threats of the pas-
sengers, that it was unlawful to load any vehicle so
unreasonably, and that they should make complaint,
were all unavailing ; the car was emptied of four solid
bodies, besides a box or two for each, with baskets and
lesser appendages, and all transferred to the coach.
The poor affrighted girl over our heads was now order-
ed to alight, by the profane blustering coachman, and
without ceremony was packed among us, though we
already had eight where five could only have a tolerable
seat. This was truly fearful as well as intolerable ;

CHAP, in.] CO. OF WICKLOW. 53

a corner of a trunk was resting on my shoulder, and
twenty miles I rode without having the free liberty of
my head or full turning of my neck. The beautiful
Vale of Avoca we entered, but my cramped position
kept me from one solitary look at it ; the ponderous
coach was threatening at every jostle to plunge us
headlong. The " Plase be so kind as to move an arm
or a leg," and " Do be aisy, my good friends, you put
my hat into all manner of shapes," went on, and,
taken as a whole, it was the most perilous, the most
uncomfortable, laughable, provoking ride that could
be imagined.

I was the first passenger called upon by the coach-
man, when we reached Arklow ; and inquiring in sur-
prise what he could mean by asking money for peril-
ling our lives, and then abusing us because we had
sense enough to know it, I assured him I never would
pay a man for abusing me, as that could always be pro-
cured without price. He walked away amid the laugh-
ter of the multitude, without soliciting money from any
other. Twenty-nine were on and in the coach, and he
expected a shilling each from most of them. I was
heartily thanked by the good-natured Irishmen, but
this was a poor compensation for a forty miles' ride of
peril and the loss of my luggage.

My carpet bag was missing ; and as the coachman,
by the way of revenge for the loss of fee, would not look
for it, I was left to make my way without it, a mile and
a half to the house where my letter was directed. En-
deavoring to take a shorter route, I was entangled in
hedge-rows and plunged in ditches. Every one of
whom I inquired gave me a different direction, while
all of them agreed that I was " goin' astray," and some
told me I must " be cracked." At length, climbing
upon the top of a wall, I found a man digging in a pit,

and called, " Will you tell me the way to Mrs.

and what kind of a woman she is," (for my vexatious
ride and my perplexing walk had made me quite sus-
picious). His reply was, " You must take the lane, and
go by the monument ; and the woman is not a bad one ;

54 CO. OP WICKLOW. [CHAP. m.

she's a snug farm, and sent five barrels of potatoes
to the poor in Arklow last winter." This was a cordial
for my fears. " And how much do you have a day for
labor ?" I inquired. " But a sorry bit, ma'am. I
stay here all day without my dinner, because my wages
wont buy one. Plase God, I hope we shall yet see
better days in Ireland."

Following his guidance, I found myself at the gate.
An open lane showed the placid sea, and the far-famed
mountains of Wicklow. About the door were roses,
a shrubbery, and lilies of the most beautiful kind. I
entered so fatigued with the day's excursion, that I
cared but little whether smiles or frowns received me.
A daughter met me in the hall, and presenting her the
letter from a long absent- brother, she invited me in.
The mother was called, and though she gave me no
Irish u thousand welcomes," yet when she saw the
letter from her son, and heard the sad tale of my coach
ride, the loss of my carpet bag, and my walk through
quagmire and ditch to her house, she invited me in to
a well furnished table, with every appendage of neat-
ness and order. The party consisted of the mother,
the eldest son, four daughters, a little niece, a young
lady and her brother who were lodgers, and two ladies
on a visit. The vexations of the day and the embar-
rassments of a stranger were soon lost in the courtesy
and flow of kindness manifested, and I felt as if seated
at the dinner table of an intelligent New England fam-
ily, where familiar friends had assembled. After din-
ner the mother invited me to the garden, saying, " We
have made our arrangements for you to spend a week
with us, and if we did not wish it we should not ask
it ; so this point is at once settled, and we will show
you what we can of our country and people." The
kindness of this offer was greatly heightened, when I
ascertained that the young gentleman who lodged with
them had offered his room for my accommodation,
and that he was to share the bed of the son of the
mistress.

Reader, do you love domestic life, where plenty,

CHAP, in.] CO. OP WICKLOW. 55

order, and comfort reside ? Then come to the garden
of Ireland, the county of Wicklow, and I will intro-
duce you to a family where all these rare qualifications
may be found. This widow had been the mother of
eleven children ; one had been drowned, and his monu-
ment, with that of his father, was near the dwelling.
A son was living in New York, and two in Ireland ;
four daughters were at home ; the youngest had made
a choice for herself, and was well settled near the
family, in one of the tidy cottages that adorn the
parish, where Lord Wicklow has lavished his good
taste so profusely. Industry and economy were hap-
pily blended in this family ; the daughters, unlike many
in Ireland with smaller incomes than they, were not
unacquainted with all that appertained to the good
management of a house. Their plentiful board was
spread with wholesome food of their own preparing,
and every apartment of the house testified to their
handiwork. The morning and evening prayer as-
cended from the altar here ; and though not in accord-
ance with my own habits of extemporaneous prayer,
yet never did I assemble for the family devotion, but
I felt on retiring that my heart had been warmed and
my resolutions strengthened in serving my God. It
may with propriety be averred, that when the morning
and evening prayer are offered in a family circle, that
family is generally the abode of peace and good
order.

" Give me the sweet abode, however humble, "
Where every child is taught to speak the name
Of God with reverence ; where, morn and eve,
The lowly knee is bent around the hallow'd
Shrine of prayer and praise."

. The following morning the mother walked with me
to Arklow ; and there, to my great joy, was my carpet
bag left by the coachman on his return. I found that
my aged companion had not lived in vain ; for besides
having, after her husband's death, paid some hundreds
of pounds of debts that were in arrears, she reared
eleven children in habits of industry, educated them for

56 CO. OP WICKLOW. [CHAP. in.

good society, and gave them all tolerable portions.
She has a mind stored with interesting anecdotes of the
history of her country, especially that part belonging to
the days of ninety-eight. The poetry with which all
the narrations of the Irish peasantry are mingled, makes
an observing listener willing to give them Ossian for
their countryman, for they spontaneously breathe out
many of his sentences, without ever having known his
book or his name.

Shelton Abbey, owned by the Earl of Wicklow, is
a spot of much interest, not only for its beauty, but
for the happy traits of character united in the earl
and his family, who make the lot of the poor peasant
tolerable, if not cheerful. Lady Wicklow has estab-
lished three schools among the cottagers, which she
supports ; and she visits from house to house, inquires
into their wants, and gives them premiums for clean-
liness. Slated roofs are substituted for thatch, and
on visiting fifteen of these cottages in one day, I saw
not a dirty uncomfortable one, and only one where the
shrubbery and flowers were not blooming in tasteful
profusion about the windows and whitewashed walls.
One of the earl's seven daughters writes religious
tales for the cottagers' children, and gives them as
rewards for industry and cleanliness. The earl sup-
ports a school for boys, where they can be kept till
the age of fourteen. I visited one of Lady Wicklow's
schools, and saw a group of cleanly, well managed
children, who are instructed by a maiden lady of
good capacity. The children are Roman Catholics
and Protestants, and on inquiring into their attain-
ments the answer was, u They are educated according
to their rank ; they belong to the lower order, and
reading, writing, arithmetic, and a little knowledge of
the maps is all the education they will ever need."
This was a dark spot in the picture, which emphati-
cally said (contrary to the injunction, li occupy till
I come"), " Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further."
What does this principle say to the wise plan of the
Almighty in the distribution of his talents ? If the

CHAP. HI.] CO. OF WICKLOW. 57

Saviour gave them to the poor, was he wise in doing
so ? Did he say, when he gave five talents, " I give
you these five ; but as you belong to the poor of the
world, you must hide all but one." What steward
over God's poor can give a good account of his
stewardship, who has directly or indirectly checked
the rising of an intellectual talent, which would be
used for the glory of God, or the benefit of man ?

Shelton Abbey has the appearance of a castle. It
is a granite building, with a belfry for the clock,
which makes a tower of no mean pretension. In the
interior of the edifice there was no lack of good
taste or. splendor. The family were in London at
the time of my visit ; but the servants and gardener,
left in charge, showed us the premises. A little spin-
ning-wheel, with flax upon the distaff, stands in the
parlor as an ornament and a pattern of industry.
Whether Lady Wicklowhas taken " hold of the distaff"
with her own hands, and furnished her house with
fine linen, was not told us ; but she certainly has
strong traits of one of Solomon's virtuous women.
The pictures were numerous and costly. The enor-
mous representation of a stag-hunt, with dogs hold-
ing by the teeth a poor stag in the act of leaping
headlong, formed a cruel contrast to the benevolent
countenance of the earl hanging near it.

" I would not enter on my list of friends,
The man who needlessly sets foot upon
A worm."

A call at the cottage of the young married sister of
the family where I was stopping, gave an additional
zest to the beauties of the morning, and the scenery
around. She received us with such simple-hearted
kindness, and spread such a well prepared repast in
such a little parlor, and in so short a time, while her
chattering little girl decked us with the freshest
flowers of the cottage, that I almost wished my lot
had been cast in the parish of Kilbride, after I had
received my education. After our palatable lunch, we
went from cottage to cottage, our company swelling at
3*

58 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. HI.

every stopping place, welcoming the American stran-
ger ; the salutations being often, " Welcome, thrice
welcome to our country ; a thousand welcomes to Ire-
land."

The children all joined in the salutations, and we
ascended an eminence that overlooked the sea. Need
I tell the reader I was proud of the honor of sitting
in the midst of that group ? Twilight was gathering
around us, and the richly cultivated fields, with here
and there a costly domain and the thatched cottage of
the peasant, were at our right and left ; for we had left
the ornamented part of the parish. But here the eye
was not pained with squalid poverty, and had I not
since seen any of the desolations of this ill-fated isle, I
must have said, u If this be Ireland, who shall weep
over her ?" I regretted that the fall of night made a
separation necessary, for I loved to hear the tiny
voices of the children, as they plucked the wild
flowers, and filled the lap of the stranger ; and when,
at a gate, or the door of the cottage, I heard the u God
bless ye, lady," I sent up a hearty wish to heaven, that
all Ireland's enemies might be touched with feelings
like my own.

The next day we visited Arklow, and our only ob-
ject of curiosity was the decayed castle, of which but
one tower is left. This the Serjeant of the barracks,
who had the care of it, kindly offered to show us. It
was built in the year 1200. Now, it plainly tells
that the battering-ram had not been applied in
vain, for it is crumbling to ruin. Our guide conduct-
ed us to the top by winding-steps, to look out upon
the adjacent country, and see where the great battles
had been fought which had deluged that part of the
country in blood.

The battle of Arklow, while " seed-time and harvest
remain," will live in the memory of all who saw it,
or shall read of it. The prospect was both grand and
awful ; the river Avoca was at our feet, winding grace-
fully through the rich vale called by its name. At our
right-hand lay the sea ; at our left, the mountains of

CHAP, in.] CO. OF WICKLOW. 59

Wicklow ; behind us the town of Arklow, and near
where I stood was once the skull of Hackett, which
had been fixed to the top of the castle, in the days of
the rebellion. This man had killed many a Protestant,
and in return they shot him, took off his head, and
placed it upon the top of the castle, where it remained
till a few years since, when a wren made her nest in
his mouth, and it finally tumbled down, and received
a burial in the side of the tower.

When we left the tower, we visited the fishermen's
settlement on the sea-shore. This consists of perhaps
three hundred huts of a squalid appearance outside ;
but on entering one of them, we were happily disap-
pointed, for we had a cordial welcome to a neatly
whitewashed room ; the cupboards in the kitchen and
little parlor were neatly arranged, and the bed neatly
curtained. This is quite common, even where the pig
has a bed on a pile of straw in the corner.

When we were about leaving the settlement, we
heard a most fearful noise in a distant cabin, and as
we approached, it became more terrific. We hesi-
tated, fearing that the work of death was going on.
We ventured at last, and saw a mother in a most
violent paroxysm of rage, standing over a girl of
eleven years old, with a stick in her hand, threatening
that she would kill her, and that instantly, if she did
not ask forgiveness ; the girl screaming in apparent
fright, pleading not to be killed, but refusing to con-
fess. We entreated the mother to desist for a moment,
and to allow us to speak. Pale and trembling with
rage, she answered, " I will break every bone in her
lazy body, ladies ; I will kill her now." We entreated
that she would allow us to speak to the child, and
finally succeeded, the mother meanwhile taking an in-
fant in her lap of eight weeks old, and giving a |
spontaneous history of her family, interlarding it with
principles that would do honor to the most cultivated i
woman. u I have eleven children, ladies ; six younger
than the scrawl that has so provoked me, and she
hasn't done a hap'orth for me to-day. She has been

60 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. in.

on the street since six o'clock. Laziness ! laziness !
ladies ! Shouldn't she be bate ? and when I got her
in, and gave her a slap, she gave me impudence, and
went into that room, and fastened the door on me,
and she wouldn't ask my forgiveness, ladies ; and she
wouldn't ask God's pardon. I wish I could bate her,
and not get into a passion.'' " You must tell her
priest," said one of the young ladies. " And that I
will ; he'll hear of this." " But she's been petted at
school, and it won't do to pet such scrawls ; and be-
fore she will be idle and filthy, I'll kill her. She'd
better be dead than lazy and dirty. I sent to Dublin
and got a piece of calico, and made them all dacent.
I saved a piece to mend 'em with, and you see here's
a rent in this child's arm (holding up the arm of a
little girl), and that lazy girl won't put on the piece ;
and she can sew well. I can't have my children
ragged. I can't have 'em dirty. It's a sin, ladies.
Their father toils, poor man, till dark night, to keep
their clothes dacent, and keep 'em in school." Here a
shrivelled old woman entered, saying, " And what's all
this ? This girl is as fine a slip as ye'll find in all
Wicklow, — a fine scholar." " You see, ladies," re-
marked the mother, " how she's petted ; that's the
trouble. They must be bate."

We then insisted that the child should hear us, tell-
ing the old woman that she had been very wicked,
and that her mother ought to punish her. " Ah! poor
woman, and she's kilt with so many of 'em, — the
craturs ; and she strives to make 'em dacent, and so
docs the father ; and she'll be a better giii — and won't
ye ?" Among us all, by exhortations and entreaties,
we succeeded in getting a promise from the offender
that she would try to do better ; that she would go
immediately, and mend her sister's elbow ; and she
voluntarily thanked us kindly for our good advice.
The mother also thanked us, and said, " What will I
do to keep down my temper ? When I see this child
in the street in bad company, all goin' to the bad,

CHAP, in.] (?O. OP WICKLOW. 61

larnin' nothin' but what the divil tells her, ladies,
shouldn't I be niad ?"

It was raining, and we could not go out : all was
hushed save the pattering of the rain upon the door-
steps, and we sat down in silence, each apparently
inclined to meditate on the scene before us. The still-
ness seemed like the great calm that followed the voice
of the Saviour, when the surging wave of the maddened
ocean shrank away, and blended together into a placid
molten sea. The paleness of the mother was ex-
changed for that wholesome ruddiness so prevalent
among the cleanly Irish peasantry, contrasting finely
with the clean cap that was becomingly adjusted upon
her high forehead. The unconscious infant, in a clean
pink frock, was sleeping on the lap of the mother,
which was covered with a tidy apron. The refractory
girl had ceased her sobbing, aud showed a face and
features of talent and interest. A little girl of six
years old was standing at our left, with face, hands,
and feet clean, her hair well combed, her frock and
apron whole and cleanly. A tidy girl of about four-
teen was nicely adjusting the dinner dishes upon a
white cupboard with the greatest care and stillness.
The room into which the young rebel had fastened
herself was clean, and for a cabin nicely furnished, as
could be seen through the open door. The room in
which we were sitting contained a bed in the corner,
in a kind of enclosure, with a clean covering, and at a
little distance were two barrels, with a pile of straw
between them, on which a couple of fat pigs were ex-
tended asleep. ,

The silence was broken by my asking the woman,
u Is your daughter industrious ?'' alluding to the one
at work. " God be praised,'' said the mother, " she
never gives me trouble ; she's always as you see her —
none but the girl who has been so petted." Fearing
" the clouds might return after the rain," we gave her
the most friendly cautions and wishes, and kindly ad-
monished the penitent girl, who followed us to the

62 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. HI.

door, adding her thanks for our kindness ; and we left
this fisherman's cabin, hoping that none had been made
worse by our visit.

u What good sentiments," remarked one of my com-
panions, " have we heard expressed from that mad
woman ! how clean her cabin ! how nice her children !
and what a mother would she have been had she been
educated !" We all looked upon the poor woman with
feelings of the deepest pity. She possessed every in-
gredient of mind to have fitted her for the best of
mothers, with the highest sense of what her daughter
should be, and her own responsibility to make her so ;
yet as she had never been cultivated herself, and had
not the least restraint upon her temper, we had reason
to fear that the wayward girl might yet fall a victim to
the mother's rage. We had visited the schools in Ark-
low, and thought of again calling to find the teacher of
this child, but did not. In these schools, which are
supported by private individuals, Protestants and Pa-
pists are taught the Scriptures daily ; and though they
appeared not quite as cleanly as Lady Wicklow's, yet
they merited more praise than censure.

A ride on a pleasant day, through a pleasant coun-
try, in pleasant company, with a good horse, an easy
carriage, and buoyant health, induces the fortunate
traveller to note pleasant things in his journal of the
country and people, especially if the tea be prepared to
his liking, and sent in at precisely the right time.
Such was my happy lot when my hostess, her daughter,
grand-daughter, and a young man, took a seat on a car,
and accompanied me through the enchanting Vale of
Avoca to Rathdrum. At Newbridge we met a rustic
funeral procession, in all kinds of habiliments, and on
all kinds of vehicles appropriate to that class ; while
the black pall, with knots of white ribbon a few inches
apart, from the head to the foot of the comn, borne on
the shoulders of four men, as a substitute for the
" sable hearse and nodding plume," told us that the
body enclosed there had withered in the morning of
life We had scarcely passed, when a gladsome wed-

CHAP, in.] CO. OP WICKLOW. 63

ding party, on. their return from the church, where the
vows had been performed, burst suddenly into view, at
a short turning of the road, and their every look and
action said,

" All men think all men mortal but themselves."

A gentle shower sprinkled us, but gave additional inter-
est to the scenery, as we rode through the shady grounds
of the tasteful domains. The grand Castle of Howard
was looking out upon our right, as if hanging upon the
top of a wooded precipice ; the domain of Mr. Parnell,
cousin to the Earl of Wicklow, lay in our path. He
had visited the United States, and from the city of
Washington he had selected a plant of no mean growth,
and fixed it in this laughing Eden, which, while the rain-
drops were glistening in the sun, now looking out upon
the broad-spreading tree and verdant lawn, said, if hap-
piness dwell not here, we must seek the fugitive in other
skies where purer spirits dwell.

On alighting from the car, we were received by a
most unassuming young woman, a relative of the good
lady who introduced me thither, and in the few hours
we stopped, we had one of the happiest specimens of
conscientious devotedness in a mother to the welfare of
her children I had ever seen. She had three, and
tl how,'' she asked, li how shall I train them for use-
fulness in time and a happy immortality ?'' She was a
mother of prayer. " You must have a church near by,"
said I, u and a good pastor, I hope, who helps you
to guide your little flock." u We have," she answered
emphatically, " and it is through his kindness, his
faithfulness, and his untiring watchfulness, that I have
been most deeply made to feel my responsibility. The
church you see here was built by himself, and he
labors in it without pay, employing curates as he sees
fit, and all the parish are visited by him, the poor as
well as the rich. He watches over the children, and
they look to him as their father." Happy pastor !
good shepherd, that cares for the sheep, and looks well
to the lambs of the flock. The memory of such will

64 CO. OP WICKLOW. [CHAP. HI.

never perish. It can be said of him, as of Goldsmith's
village preacher,

" Even children followed with endearing wile,
And pluck'd his gown to share the good man's smile."

The little town of Rath drum contains about two hun>-
dred families, and is fitted up with considerable taste.
A poor-house well filled adorned the outskirts. But the
ride home —

" Now came still evening on, and twilight grey
Had in her sober livery all things clad."

It was Ireland's summer twilight, lingering long, as
though loath to draw the curtain closely about a bright
isle in a dark world like this. It was early in July,
the rich foliage had attained its maturity, and not a
seared leaf was sprinkled on bush or tree, to warn that
autumn was near. For the first mile the road was
smooth and broad, lined with trees ; now and then a
white gate with white stone pillars, opening to some
neat cottage or domain ; the glowing streaks of the
setting sun had not left the western sky, and glimmered
through the trees ; while the air, made fragrant by the
gentle shower, diffused through body and mind that
calmness which seemed to whisper, "Be silent; it is
the Vale of Avoca you are entering." We descended
a declivity, and the vale opened upon us at " the Meet-
ing of the Waters." The tree under which Moore sat
when he wrote the sweet poem had been pointed to me
in the morning. We now stood near the union of the
two streams, where the poet says,

" There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet,
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet."

The rich variety of wood ; the still, clear, limpid
water ; the hill and vale, in some parts dark and wild,
in others light and soft, ever and anon relieving the
eye by some new variety ; but above all, the pleasant
association that this vale, however dark and deep its
recesses, harbors not a venomous serpent or reptile —
no, not even the Buzz of the musquito is heard — made
it unlike all others. We rode three miles, scarcely

CHAP, in.] CO. OF WICKLOW. 65

uttering a syllable all the while ; a holy repose seemed
to rest on this hallowed spot, as when it first bloomed
under the hand of its Maker, and imagination was
prompted to say, as no serpent has ever coiled here, the
contaminating touch of sin has not left its impress.

Never did I leave a spot more reluctantly ; it was a
night scene which never has faded from my eye, and I
hope never will.

" O ! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart."

In the deep silence, the voice of God and the soft whis-
per of angels seemed to be there. These voices said
kindly, u There is mercy yet for poor erring man." It
appeared like the bow of the covenant, telling us to look
and remember that though this world has been cursed
by sin, yet a new heaven and earth are promised, of
which this is a shadowy resemblance.

The borders of this valley are interspersed with gen-
tlemen's seats, and here and there dotted with the
whitewashed cottages of the peasants ; and the rich
cluster of foliage upon the hill sides, upon bush and tree,
almost persuade you that the dew of Hermon has fallen
upon them. Stranger, when you visit Ireland, visit the
Vale of Avoca. If you love God, here you will see him
in a picture that must be read ; if your stay be limited,
waste it not in decyphering a time-defaced stone, tell-
ing the bloody deeds of some ancient warrior, or the
austerity of some long-lived ascetic, but linger in this
spot ; stop at the neat little hotel, erected on purpose
for the accommodation of the stranger ; and morning,
noon, and night explore its never-dying beauties of
light and shade. Three times did I go through, and
when I turned away at last, I felt that

" I could stay there for ever to wander and weep."

The fairy pictures of Ireland had now opened upon
me so vividly, that had it not been for the beggars of
Tullamore, I must have said, surely this country is quite
a monopolist in its pleasant things ; but little did my
enthusiasm anticipate the check that awaited it.

66 CO. OP WICKLOW. [CHAP. in.

The next day a ride to Killahester, upon the moun-
tains, five miles distant, took us to the house of my
hostess's son. He accompanied us to the Gold Mines,
in a deep ravine ; these were discovered more than
forty years ago, and government then attempted to
work them, but soon abandoned the project. Now any
man may search here for gold, where and how he pleases,
and we found four men patiently at work at their own
risk. They informed us that they often dug for days
in succession, and got not a particle of gold ; then they
find a little, sufficient to encourage them, and they pa-
tiently labor on. Inquiring of a lad of twenty, " Sup-
pose you work a month and find none, what would you
then do!" he replied, "O we don't mind that; the
good may come at last." Happy for the poor Irish,
that their organ of hope is so largely developed, other-
wise they would sink under their accumulated burdens.
They showed us a specimen of the gold. It was about
a guinea's worth, and was quite pure. The lad who
produced it said, " We be never disheartened." Well
they might take courage, for digging in a rock for gold,
with a few grains now and then as a reward, is as good
an equivalent as working for sixpence or eightpence
a day, and buying their own potatoes. The inhabit-
ants of this mountain are many of them, poor, and live
in dark mud cabins, with a scanty supply of food.
My friend, at whose house I stopped, observed that
the laborers who live under the farmers are in a
better condition than those who live under the land-
owners. The latter allow but tenpence a day, out of
which the laborer must find his own food, while a great
farmer often gives fifteen pence and part of the food.
My friend was one of these great farmers ; he had two
hundred acres of land, and paid his laborers in that
proportion.

^Passing a gate, we saw a man at work with a small
dog, whose emaciated body and trembling skulking
manner induced me to say, " Your dog, sir, looks as if
you do not feed him enough." " And that I don't,"

j was the answer. " And why not ? you should kill him or

CHAP, in.] CO. OP WICKLOW. 67

feed him better." The master made no answer,
that silent eloquence which speaks louder than words. I
As we walked away, " Poor man !" said the farmer,]
" he is much of the time hungry himself; he gets but;
little work, and I doubt not but he is in want of food!
this minute." The sad proofs of Ireland's woes were*
then beginning in the county of Wicklow, and I coulq
not enjoy the palatable meal of bread, cream, and!
fruit, so much did the desponding man and his"
famished dog annoy me. The sight was then new to
me, to see a man in a season of plenty about his avoca-
tions without sufficient food to eat, and a faithful dog,
meagre and starving, watching and obeying the will of \
the master. But these have since ceased to be objects j
of wonder.

On Saturday I visited the estate of a gentleman who
had perched his mansion on the brow of the Vale of
Avoca. Here, though porters and dogs guarded the
buildings, yet we were admitted into the outer porch of
the temple, and had a walk among evergreens and flow-
ers upon the margin of the vale ; and we seated our-
selves upon a rustic seat, to feast again upon the never
fading beauties of the river and vale at our feet. A
distant landscape of cultivated country was stretched
beyond, and the whole looked more like a fairy land
than a real spot of earth, trees, and water. We were
disappointed that we were not allowed to enter the
premises, and see the greatest curiosity of the whole,
a mare of the age of fifty years, who carried her master
to the great battles forty-six years before, in the days
of the rebellion. She is said to be in good flesh ; her
head is white with age, her body grey ; and the daugh-
ters of the man who was once her owner but is now dead,
have the beast kept, and well tended on this estate, out
of respect to both their father and the animal. The
simple hearted cottagers who accompanied me presented
a picture of patriarchal days and manners, that made
me regret that artificial life and

"trade's unfeeling train
Usurped the land and dispossessed the swain."

68 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. iv.

Calling at the cottage of a peasant, attracted by the
beauty of the shrubbery, and to inquire the way to Bal-
lyarthur, " Pardon me," said the woman, and hasten-
ing into the cottage, she returned with her bonnet and
shawl, and said, u I will go with you, ladies, and show
you a near way." She was advanced in life, and some-
thing corpulent ; and her effort to climb over stiles, and
pass hedges and ditches, for the accommodation of
strangers, called for an acknowledgment. Her scrip-
tural answer was noticeable, u But we are told, ma'am,
that we musn't turn the stranger out of his way."
Happy would it be if all who read the Scriptures more
than this unnoticed woman would practise its precepts
as well.

CHAPTER IV.

The Church of Kilbride— A Methodist Minister— Methodism in Ireland— Visit
to the Rectory — Tetotalism unfashionable — American Courtesy to Females
not universal in Ireland — The Seven Churches of Glendalough — Foolish Le-
gends connected with this locality — Strange Exhibition of Party Spirit — Re-
turn to Dublin — Lady Harburton's School,

ON Sabbath heard the rector of Kilbride preach a
most searching sermon, from u Knowing the terrors of
the Lord, we persuade men," insisting that we should
always be reminded that God loves justice as well as
mercy, and that he gave an awful proof of this love in
the punishment of his Son. The congregation was
small, but quite in accordance with everything in the
parish, neat and respectable ; the music was sweet, and
" Old Hundred" was performed in that soul-stirring,
soul-fitting manner which is so peculiar to that tune
when well performed. If set tunes are performed in
heaven, " Old Hundred" and " Luther's hymn" must
be favorites in that " great congregation." This rec-
tor and his lady were among the first in the morning
at the sabbath-school, which he opened by prayer,
this being his usual custom. When introduced to him

CHAP, iv.] CO. OF WICKLOW. 69

as an American, I was happy to find that his rector-
ship had not robbed him of that beautiful urbanity so
characteristic of the native Irish, for he gave me a
hearty welcome to Ireland, in true Irish mode. " I
passed," said he, " three pleasant years in New York,
and left it with great reluctance. I am quite attached
to its customs and people in many respects, especially
their hospitality to strangers and their politeness to
females."

Sabbath evening supped at the house of Mr. Burke,
a Methodist clergyman. His companion was one of
those prudent wives who are from the Lord. Her
children were educated by herself (the proper busi-
ness of mothers), and their becoming deportment tes-
tified that the pruning-knife had been applied in
season. Mr. Burke told me that the Methodists now
numbered in Ireland about 29,000 members, and 100
preachers. Certainly these indefatigable laborers
have done no small business to make their way through
Popery, Prelacy, Presbyterianism, and Independency.
They are instant in season and out of season. Went
to Arklow at seven, and found a plain chapel, with a
plain man in the pulpit, and heard a plain sermon
preached to a plain people, all in accordance, with every
nail fitted to its place.

On Monday, the family of my hostess were invited to
make a social visit at the rectors. His cottage, like
those of most of his neighbors, was surrounded by
shrubbery, and a little lawn spread out at the front.

" The soil improved around, the mansion neat,
And neither poorly low nor idly great."

It was consistency outside, and within neatness and
good order prevailed. The mother of Mrs. D. and
Mr. D.'s sister, together with the usual accompani-
ments, children to the number of three, composed the
family of the rector and his lady. The sister had
travelled considerably, was highly intelligent, and the
wife and mother would do honor to any exalted sta-
tion. The evening passed pleasantly and profitably to

70 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. iv.

me, as Mr. D. gave what lie thought the true condi-
tion of Ireland, and the cause of her sufferings,
namely, popish influence and the bad government of
England in the beginning, together with absenteeism.
In his opinion, if repeal were granted, the exter-
mination of all Protestantism must and would take
place.

The reader will not think that the flowers and
shrubbery, the politeness and attention of the people of
Kilbride, had so won upon me as to dim my vision
to all that is unseemly, when I add that in this intel-
ligent, refined, and religious little party, I felt that a
wiser and holier Being might say, u I have somewhat
against thee." Here was a sudden check upon my
happy evening, when, to my surprise, I saw the wine
giving its color in the cup. So long had I been ac-
customed to view it as an evil and bitter thing, that
I thought all Christians felt the same, since the Lord
commands us not to "look upon it when it is red,"
" when it moveth itself aright ;" and especially since
in America it is generally believed that in Ireland
all classes of the people have got rid of the sin of
intemperance. I had seen it before on Protestant
tables, but did not expect it among the clergy ; but I
had many things to learn, and this fact was one, that
this heaven-inspired movement of temperance in Ire-
land not only owes its effectual origin to the Papists,
but is continued and supported mostly by them. May
God in mercy to poor Ireland open the eyes of the of-
ficers of the church, and the leading men among the no-
bility, to act as he would have them act. I looked
back on New England twenty-five years ago, and then
saw the clergy and nobility demurring whether it was
sinful to drink in " moderation." 1 looked upon them
now, and heard them unitedly cry out, u Touch not,
taste not, handle not. but shun the appearance of evil,"
and I looked upon this lovely family down the vista of
a few short years, hoping and believing that they too
would be emancipated, and walk forth unshackled from
tyrant custom and tyrant appetite.

CHAP. iv.J CO. OF WICKLOW. 71

The time of departure arrived, and a second subject
was discussed. The rector had said an hour or two
before, " You will find that the habits of our country
differ widely from yours, in regard to the attention paid
to females by the gentlemen. While the gentlemen
there are sometimes over attentive, they are here often
neglectful, if not uncivil." I regretted to hear this,
for though I had come determined to meet all and every-
thing as unfeelingly as possible, yet my education had
taught me to believe that the attentions paid to females
should spring from their dependence ; and this depen-
dence is generally greater in age than in youth. It ts
much to be lamented if Irish mothers have not in-
structed their young sons, that to suffer a female, espe-
cially an aged one, to go out at night alone, to climb
into a carriage without assistance, or to stand up in
church while men are sitting, is unkind, uncourteous,
and highly reprehensible.

Pardon this digression. We had on our bonnets and
shawls to go out, and the kind rector had his staff and
hat in hand to accompany us. " We cannot allow you,"
said a young lady, "to take all this trouble ; we can
very well go alone." "No female whom I have in-
vited to my parlor or table shall go out of my house
unprotected on a dark evening." " Amen !" responded
my heart, for I could not see how any man could do less,
and be a man still ; but the uneasiness that the ladies
manifested, plainly told that they had not been accus-
tomed to such attentions.

" You must see the Seven Churches, before you leave
the county of Wicklow," said my good friends. This
visit to the Seven Churches is a memorable one, not
only on account of the marvels which we saw and
heard, but the pleasant and painful associations with
which it is connected. The young husband of the
daughter of my hostess offered to accompany me to
the place, seventeen miles distant, with his wife and
another lady. It was in the midst of haymaking, and
he left his business, hired a horse and car, and we
started at an early hour on a beautiful sunny morning.

72 CO, OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. iv.

We stopped a few moments at the Copper Mines, which
were then in operation, and had been for twenty years.
They had at that time explored a mile in depth into a
mountain of rocks, and found sufficient encouragement
to proceed. Eight shillings a week was the laborer's
compensation for this arduous toil. Our ride was
pleasant, and the country rich for the first part of the
way. Within a few miles of the Churches, the moun-
tains become higher, and are covered with heath, giv-
ing them a barren and dry appearance. The entrance
to this celebrated spot is not through lawns or pleasure
grounds, but between a wall of strong mountains on
the right and left ; and the few cultivated spots looked
to the stranger to be scarcely a sufficiency for the poor
peasantry, who soon gathered in thick array around
us when we arrived, to show us the wonders, or to ask
a penny. Old men and maidens, young men and chil-
dren were on the spot, each with the utmost servility
ready to " sarve" us in the best and " chapest" manner.
We were obliged to shake them all off except one, who
was engaged, and handed over ^to me, as I was a stran-
ger, and my party had visited it before. The sensible
reader shall be troubled with only a very little of the
consummate nonsense with which my ears were stuffed
during the long six hours we passed among these ruins.
The first object of interest was a round tower, stand-
ing alone, one hundred and seven feet in height, and
about six and a half in diameter, with windows at some
distance from the top, and no door nor entrance what-
ever except the windows. For what purpose these
incomprehensible towers were built everybody attempts
to tell us, and nobody satisfies the inquirer, even if he
satisfy himself. Even my guide told no legend in
connexion with it. The burying-ground in which we
were standing was the next wonder. Its age is traced
by the peasantry back to the first peopling of this
u land of saints ;" some asserting that St. Patrick was
the founder, others going further back ; but among
the rude, defaced, and dilapidated stones, I did not
read one inscription of more than a hundred and fifty

CHAP, iv.] CO. OP WICKLOW. 73

years ago ; however I did not read all, and many were
written in such hieroglyphics, that the Jesuits who
wrote them might best decipher them. The graves
were pointed out to us where five priests were deposit-
ed ; and there were deep holes in these graves, whence
the% consecrated clay had been taken, which we were
informed would cure all diseases, however obstinate.
One of the company now cried out, " See that child
hanging from a high grave-stone — she will be killed if
she falls." " Oh, never fear," cried a young woman,
" she hangs there every day ; she's puttin' purgatory
over her, ma'am ; she tells her mother she wont live
the year, and she does it for penance, lady." "Ah !
she's a wonderful child, that" — responded my guide,
who now told me that the wonders he was about to
relate had been told to him by his grandfather, and
might be all believed. An enormous stone cross stands
here for the benefit of single persons, who, if they can
embrace it backwards, will be certain of a partner
within a year. The guide told us he had done so to
accommodate gentlemen who had visited there, and
as often as he had done it, his wife died, till he had
lost five, and was fairly tired out. The cathedral is a
coarse stone building, now gone to decay, and but a
monument of what it once was. It must have been very
strong, but small and dismal, and of many hundred
years standing.

It is unnecessary to describe every object of interest
that we saw among the ruined churches, of which
enough remains to keep alive the legends of the super-
stitious, and the curiosity of the stranger. The very
name and the romance connected with the mountains,
the lakes and St. Kevin's bed, will continue to attract
the traveller. The stone where the orphan boy stood
daily, and was fed by a deer, which St. Kevin called
from the mountains to shed her milk into a hole in the
stone for the child, still remains, and you are shown the
marks of the child's fingers. The round rock, flafc
upon the top, under which a fire was made, which St.
Kevin ordered to be kept hot to bake the cakes of King
4

74 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. iv. "

O'Toole, is also pointed out. Among the good deeds
ascribed to the saint is the building of the churches.
Being poor, he had no land to build upon ; King O'-
Toole owned that country, and St. Kevin had fled into
a cavern which overlooks the larger lake, to avoid the
snares of the beautiful Kathleen. Feeling a most holy
desire to establish the worship of God in these moun-
tains, he applied to the king for land. The king had a
pet goose, which had stood at his door seven years with-
out either flying or walking ; and he told the saint if he
would make his goose walk, he would give him as much
land as she would fly over. The saint took the goose
in his hand, and threw her up in the air, and she flew
down the glen upon one side of the lakes, and up the
other. Thus the whole glen became the saint's, and
next comes the building of the churches. " You must
know," said my guide, u that no lark flies over this
glen, nor no lamb ever lies down in it." When these
churches were building, the laborers complained that
they were obliged to work from lark-rising till the lying
down of the lamb at night, for a penny a day. St. Ke-
vin told them that the lark should never fly over the glen,
nor the lamb lie down on it again, which promise has
been kept sacred, and these lines from Moore are repeat-
ed with much pathos :

" By that lake, whose gloomy shore
Sky-lark never warbled o'er."

The two lofty mountains which overhang these lakes
and glens were once visited by King O'Toole and a Scot-
tish giant, who shook hands across the lake ; and the
king, after having drunk the health of the giant, handed
him the tumbler. All this you must believe if you are
not a downright heretic, and this is but a beginning of
the marvels. There are a few realities which might be
worth the notice of the traveller, if they could be reached
beneath the rubbish that covers them.

Seven churches once stood here, whether all built
at the same period is not certainly known ; if so, the
spot must have been thickly peopled ; but when these

CHAP, iv.] CO. OF WICKLOW. 75

people lived, and how they subsisted in this narrow
glen, is a mystery. Two majestic mountains overlook
these lakes sleeping at their base, leaving little room for
cabins, though a few are sprinkled upon the border of
the lakes on one side. By the side of a moss-covered
pile of stones, which was one of the churches, was an
open grave, said to be King O'Toole's. The head of
his coffin, which was stone, lay upon the ground, the
grave having been opened to ascertain whether his coffin
were there. A stone cross stood upright, bearing marks
of ancient workmanship. At the bottom of this monu-
ment lay a moss-covered stone, with carvings of serpents
and hieroglyphics.

The stranger cannot but pause and reflect, in the
midst of these legends and foolish superstitions ; there
must have been here, in years long gone by, a pecu-
liar people, a people if not literary yet religious, who
selected this deep dell for the purpose of adding soli-
tude to their devotions. The remains of seven churches
without any vestiges of dwelling-houses, give to the
whole a deeper mystery. Though a hot July sun was
shining with unusual fervor, a subduing stillness
reigned around the lake ; and one green spot of trees,
wild flowers, and grass, through which ran a clear,
soft murmuring stream, added a romantic beauty to
the scene. I had stolen a moment from my gabbing
interpreter, to enjoy by the side of this stream a little
rest and reflection, when a shrill shout, followed by
a hideous echo, burst ugon my ear. It was the old
barefooted Kathleen, who has acted for twenty years
as a guide to St. Kevin's bed, and who carries pre-
sumptuous visitors on her back up the steep and dan-
gerous cliff", in the face of which is the cave where
the saint had lived. Into this cave she assured us she
had carried Walter Scott, Thomas Moore, and many
other great personages, and it only wanted myself to
complete the list. Assuring her that I had not the
least ambition to immortalize my name by a ride upon
her back, and a tumble into the lake beneath, from
which a rescue would be impossible, I left the honor

76 CO. OP WICKLOW. [CHAP.IV.

to such as miglit better deserve it. As she still insist-
ed, and the guide added, " it would be a great loss
not to see where the good saint lay," I ventured a
little way up the steep, and was glad to find a place
for my sliding feet to rest, whilst one of our party, an
adventurous young woman, went on. She reached the
precipice, and placed her hand on the shelving-stone
that covered the cave. The yawning, black, and deep
gulf was beneath her, and the slightest jostle might
have plunged her headlong. Her husband, seeing her
presumption, had seated himself at a distance, waiting
the fearful event in silence ; and for myself, I turned
not a look in that direction, fully expecting to hear a
shriek and sudden splash into the lake beneath. In a
few minutes she was near us ; perspiration, she said,
started from every pore, and tears streamed from her
eyes, as she found herself actually hanging by the rock
over the precipice ; and she was glad to be again by the
side of her husband.

Kathleen returned, redoubling her assurances of my
safety, if I would trust to her " sure fut ;" but she was
forced to content herself with giving specimens of the
strength of her lungs, while the mountains returned the
screams in faithful echoes. My guide determined not
to be out-done, and he screamed out exclamations to
the giants and fairies, who all answered by repeating
the same distinctly. We saw a line of stones cross a bog
of eighty or a hundred yards, arranged in the shape of
crosses, where pilgrims in more holy times went over
upon their knees doing penance. " You must know,
lady, that this was a place of saints," remarked our
guide solemnly. Our walk was now interrupted by
a line made across our path, of sweet-briar, and held
at each end by two little girls. Supposing they were
at play, I said, " You are jumping the rope." " No,
ma'am, it's a turnpike." " And must we pay toll ?"
" If you plase, lady." We had three of these turn-
pikes to pass within a few rods, and toll was required at
each. This was a contrivance of their mothers to draw
money.

CHAP. iv.J CO. OP WICKLOW. 77

It is difficult, in going through Ireland, to know
whether to be disgusted at the whining cant of the
beggars to move your pity, or provoked at their de-
ceitful impudent efforts to extort your money. And
it must be equally difficult for beggars to demean them-
selves honorably ; if they appear servile and religious,
then they are hypocrites; if like men and women
transacting other business in life, then they are im-
pudent. It is painful to see the cunning arts of young
children, trained from the cradle to beg, when the
parents are not honest. But it is well for Ireland that
its paupers in general are not a dangerous thieving
race ; if they were, they are so numerous, that the more
favored classes would never be secure. When we
had paid toll at the gates, the last marvel of our day
Was shown by our guide. It was a bush over a round
pool of water, the branches tied thickly with rags, which
had been used for washing eruptions upon pilgrims.
You are informed that St. Kevin blessed this pool, and
it cures all who wash in it. A few more fooleries are
practised upon the credulous visitor, and the guide dis-
misses him as having done his own duty well ; the
stranger has only to believe. When all was finished, I
said, " You do this for money, sir." " I get my bread
by it, lady, and yesterday [which was the Sabbath] I
made eight shillings." " And do you believe one word
of all the ridiculous stuff with which you have been
cramming us ?" " I tell it, lady, as I heard it." " But
do you believe it yourself ?" He looked confounded,
and answered, "No : but I made only one story to fill
up the time as we were passing along."

When we returned to the inn, a devout-looking
woman met us, and gravely asked, " Have you washed
in St. Kevin's pool ? Depend upon it, lady, there is
the greatest vartue in it ; it cures all sorts of evils.'5 I
replied by asking her, " And have you ever washed the
wicked one himself?" Astonished, she looked at me,
" The divil, ma'am, did ye mane ? The divil can't
come here. This is the place of saints." One of the
ladies who accompanied me said, " You have lost your

78 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. iv.

character as a Christian, and they'll want no more of
you in this holy place. You have laughed at their
money-making lies, and no one ever does that here.
They expected you to receive it all in good faith, and to
admire when you go away the skilfulness of the guide
in entertaining you." A word respecting the inn-
keeper, a fat good-natured mass, tumbled together in
not the most scrupulous manner, but as incredulous
respecting the holiness of the spot as his interests would
allow him. u I know less of the wonders of the place,"
he said, " than those that visit here ; but as people
will come, I will entertain them," which he did in a most
comfortable manner, and at a moderate price. As we
were going out, he called to me, and gave me a word
of advice. " Do you, madam, publish a sketch of these
wonders, and give new names which nobody can in-
terpret, and your book will circulate well in Ireland.
But be sure you express no doubt on the subject your-
self."

Our guide was no novice at story-telling, for he told
my friend who had accompanied us, that he would visit
his neighborhood, and entertain him any evening with
stories, as soon as he could get time to make some good
ones; adding, "This is my business, you know, but I
will ask you nothing as you brought the lady." He
had been twice paid for his bundle of lies to me ; my
friend feed him in advance, and I paid at the close.
This ridiculous farce, practised for a long timo, loses
little of its interest even in the nineteenth century.
And though the invention is attributed to Catholic su-
perstition, it yet meets many a believing heart in Protest-
antism. The guide called himself a Protestant.

On our return we ascended the serpentine, closely
swept road, that conducts the traveller through the
woody enclosure to the top of the hill, on which stands
the romantic Castle Howard, looking down with her
evergreens about her upon the beautiful Vale of Ovoca.
Nature and art seem here to have done their utmost
to render the spot not only grand but lovely. The
lady of the castle was absent on a fashionable tour to

CHAP, iv.] CO. OP WICKLOW. 79

England, leaving the house-keeper to show the castle
and reap the benefit. The interior is fitted up with
all the appendages belonging to high life, dogs, leo-
pards, statues, and ornaments, so varied that nothing
seemed left for the mind to supply, but the placing iu
the library of a* few dozen volumes more moral in ten-
dency than the works of Voltaire.

My visit to the county of Wicklow being finished, I
am happy to say that both country and people exceeded
my sanguine expectations. The natural scenery, the
cultivation, but most of all the peasantry, possess a kind
of fascination, which every unprejudiced traveller must
confess. Many of the peasantry are cleanly, intelligent,
and industrious, and an inviting charm hangs about
their cottages, which says to the stranger there is peace
and comfort within ; and when you enter, you feel you
are welcome. The Irish greeting cannot be misunder-
stood ; and here the same kindness and the same order
prevailed among Catholics as among Protestants. I
called one Saturday evening at an humble cottage,
where the children, to the number of five, all took
their seats unbidden in a corner. Their neatness and
good conduct caused me to look about more particu-
larly, and there I saw the signs of a prudent wife and
mother. " You see," said the young ladies, as we
passed out, " the management of this poor woman ; she
is always clean, always comfortable, and her children
always tidy, though poor." They had been kept to
school, and, by the strictest economy, the family had
never been obliged to trouble their neighbors in sick-
ness, ever having needful supplies for such exigen-
cies, though possessing not a farthing but the daily la-
bor of the father. They never partake of tea, coffee, or
ardent spirits ; or meat, except at Christmas.

I must leave Wicklow with a grateful remembrance
of underserved kindness, for the last words I heard were,
" My house shall be welcome to you whenever you
come this way."

When leaving New York, a friend said to me, " Give
us all the information of the country you can ; but

80 DUBLIN. [CHAP. iv.

don't touch, politics. That is miserable work for a
woman." But I soon found in Ireland, it was a great
misfortune that I had not acquainted myself more with
at least the technicals of the different parties ; many
egregious blunders might have been saved, and not a
word need have been spoken. " You had better take the
Radical to Dublin," said a man, " it is not so crowded
as the Conservative coach." I nodded assent, without
knowing the coach virtues of either term, as applicable
to anything in my case, or indeed the case of Ireland,
as I have since known it. I took the Radical, was well
seated, well used, and found my journey back quite
the reverse of the sad and savage one down. These
were O'Connell-days, and this Radical was a repeal
coach. " What do you think of repeal?" said a well-
dressed gentleman ; " as I never had the pleasure of
seeing an American lady before in Ireland, I should
like to know her opinion." u A woman, sir, I am told,
should not meddle with politics, but this I will venture
to say, that Ireland ought to be redeemed from her
bondage, and whether it be done by repeal or some
other instrument, let it be done." This man was a
Roman Catholic priest ; his parish including the fisher-
men of Arklow, who were all tetotalers, not one having
broken his pledge. He was well skilled in the doctrines
of his church, but complaisant and patient under con-
tradiction ; and report says he has done much to im-
prove the morals and the condition of his people. When
I alighted, I was determined to remember the Radical
coach, not forgetting the kindness of the driver.

On the Monday after my return to Dublin, I visited
the schools originally established and supported by
Lady Harburton, a lady of great fortune and benevo-
lence. These schools do much honor to the teachers,
as well as to the founder. The infant school numbers
about one hundred and forty, and was conducted like
those I had been accustomed to see at home. Here
was a school of little boys, instructed in the Scriptures
and the first rudiments of geography ; a privilege
which, though they were the children of the poor, was

CHAP, iv.] DUBLIN. 81

not denied them, as in Lady Wicklow's school. The
school of young girls was as good in arrangement as I
had ever seen ; order, cleanliness, and attention were
strikingly manifested. The superintendent was quite
intelligent, and thorough to the last degree in all her
investigations. The reading, examination in the Scrip-
tures, in ancient and modern geography, arithmetic
and grammar, showed honorable faithfulness in both
teacher and pupil. But I regretted sincerely the se-
verity of the superintendent. A little more tenderness
mixed with her rebukes, I could not but think would
have accomplished as much good, and left a more
favorable impression on the hearts of the pupils.
Goldsmith's country schoolmaster did not more richly
deserve the character of a petty despot, than did this
otherwise excellent teacher, for if of him it might be
said,

"Full well the boding tremblers learned to trace
The day's disaster in his morning face j"

of her it might be added,

"Pull well the busy whisper circling round,
Convey'd the dismal tidings when she frown'd ;"

for her frowns were the preludes to heavy blows.

The children of Catholics composed a respectable
part of the school ; and if this were a fair specimen of
schools in Ireland, the children of the country would
have no claim to pity on the subject of education.

82 THE CANAL BOAT. [CHAP. v.

CHAPTER V.

The Second Cabin of a Canal-Boat—Much ado about Sixpence— A Blind Fiddler
_ A Jaunting Car Jaunt — Arrival at Kilkenny — Cordial Hospitality — Kilken
y Beggars — Journey to U
The Poor Widow's Welc

uy Beggars — Journey to Urlingford — A Rural Physician — Ride in a Turf Kish
— The Poor Widow's Welcome — A Country Dance — Departure of an Emigrant
—Lamentations thereupon-1- Kind Reception in an intelligent Roman Catholic

Family— An Irish Wake— A Faction— Fair at Urlingford— Costume of the
Peasantry — Visit to a Natiojia^ School,

ON the following Thursday I took the fly-boat on
my way to Kilkenny. When I went to Tullamore, I
took my seat in the first cabin, but being then closely
packed with a stiff company, I now preferred to get a
comfortable seat, to pay less, and learn more of Irish
character by going in the second cabin. The two last
objects were realized, and what was lost in honor was
made up in amusement, for Irish wit had here full
play. An unfortunate miss from Liverpool, with more
tongue than brain, opened the scene by telling the
captain that she paid more, by sixpence, for a ride in
that dirty ditch, than for crossing the raging billows
from England ; and besides, a boy in the cabin, bigger
that she was, had not paid so much. li But, miss, if
you please, it's not by weight but by age we go.'7
" Age ! indeed ! and who told you that ?" A wag
from one corner of the boat cried out, u and 'spose,
captain, you take a look of the two jaws on the two
sides of the tongue." " The devil a bit could ye gain
by that," answered an old man, " that long loose
tongue of hers would fret out eleven pair of teeth before
a hair could turn white on her pate."

The battle now rose high.

" And may -be the girl would stand up and show
bow long she is ; and if but a slip, she must surely
have on leggins." The girl was instantly on her feet.
;c There, do you think I am as big as the boy ?" " And
that you are, rejoined the captain, " and I think you

CHAP, v.] THE CANAL BOAT. 83

are married." This she positively denied, and insisted
on the sixpence. " Will nothing else do ?" said the
captain ; "I will give you a dinner of beef-steak, and
pay all expenses of whatever you may choose." " And
though," said another, " you may have had breakfast,
you cannot have too much of a good thing ; and if you
don't choose the steak, you can take the tay and toast."
" The sixpence is all I want ; the sixpence is my due ;
and will you, captain, give me the sixpence ?"

A fat old woman sat at my side, guarding an enor-
mous wallet that lay at her feet, with two huge bonnets
upon her head, which, though by their material, they
might have been modelled some ages apart, yet by dint
of bending a little here, and widening largely there, they
so exactly fitted that they might be said to be of the
same ton. This thrifty manager arose in all the ma-
jesty of matronly experience, and made her way through
masses of legs and mountains of luggage, till sho
reached the clamorous maiden, who was still standing,
and demanded an audience: u And sure the like of ye
couldn't be found in a day's walk in Ireland ; and can't
ye stop your bawlin' about a paltry sixpence ? and
where's the mother that rair'd such a scrawl ? If she's
out of the ground, why didn't she keep ye under her
eye till ye had sinse ?" All to no purpose ! she still
insisted on the sixpence. u Yer a fool, and ther's no
use in talkin." u And do you think she's the only
woman that's a fool ?" answered an old man who had
been snoring in the corner. An old grey-haired blind
fiddler now entered the boat. This gave a new and
interesting turn to the scene. All eyes were intent,
and all ready to sit closer, and huddle away baggage,
to make a a dacent sate " for the fiddler. The old
woman resumed her position at my side, and the blind
man took the fiddle from his green bag, and played a
melancholy air of true ancient Irish. He was a good
performer, and though he played some lively airs, yet
to me he seemed not to be at home, but gave them be-
cause he must. That meek subdued look, which
always sits on the face of the blind, was emphatically

84 THE CANAL BOAT. [CHAP. v.

his ; old, and trembling with age, Ke commanded ve-
neration, while his blindness awoke both the pity and
benevolence of the passengers. They gladly responded
to the call of a youth, who said, " If you plase, old man,
hand out your plate ; 'tis time for a collection." The
fiddler drew from his thread-bare vest pocket a little
tin plate, which the young man passed about, and a few
shillings were put into the hands of the thankful mu-
sician, who was then set onshore to make his way to an
appointment for the evening. These blind fiddlers are
somewhat numerous, especially in the south of Ireland,
and are treated with great humanity by all classes.

The Liverpool girl, who seemed a little composed
while the fiddler was performing, now reminded us
that the predominant wish had not yet died, for she
remarked, " The sixpences were so plenty here for the
fiddler, I should think you might give me back mine
that the captain took from me." We now reached
Athy, and happy was I to exchange the tedious maid
for a seat on the novel Irish car, with a genteel young
lady on one side, going to Kilkenny. The rain com-
menced, which deprived me of seeing the country as I
wished ; but troops of ragged urchins, who rushed
from the national school, and from every cabin we
passed, made up the deficiency. I was sitting alone,
and succeeded, unperceived by the driver, in beckoning
three of them upon the car. Their ready answers
solved all my questions about the country, for what
Paddy left out, Micky could supply, and they manifest-
ed none of that rudeness which is so often met among
city boys. We passed a barren spot of country, but
were soon repaid by here and there a rich domain,
tenanted by some grasping landlord, who kept the poor
about him cringing for a day's work at sixpence or
eightpence a day. A Protestant gentleman joined the
lady on the other side of the car ; he was a talking
noviciate, just entered upon his charge. He left in a
few miles, and a Roman Catholic clergyman, grave in
demeanor, supplied his place. The young lady had
the exclusive privilege of both, and my little, civil, and

CHAP, v.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 85

profitable companions left the car at the beautiful town
of Castlecomer.

We reached Kilkenny, and the young lady left the
car without bidding me a cold good-bye. In a moment
she returned with the lady of the house, who in a most
pleasant manner said, " Come in, you are an American
stranger ; come in, and take tea with us, and I will send
a servant with you to your lodgings." Joyfully I ac-
cepted the offer, and found within a well-ordered taste-
fully-arranged house, and the mistress a highly accom-
plished widow, who had beeen reared in affluence, edu-
cated in the best manner, and was then engaged in
teaching. The piano and the harp, the ancient boast
of Ireland's better days, were there, and the lady, who
had been educated in a convent, knew well how to
touch the heart by her melody. Her two little daugh-
ters, who were but children, did honor to her who had
trained them with a skilful hand. Never had I seen
high birth, beauty, and noble intellectual attainments
more happily blended with a meek and quiet spirit than
in this accomplished woman. Though she was a Roman
Catholic, yet the higher class of Protestants were anx-
ious to place their daughters under her care ; with this
proviso, that a Protestant clergyman should visit there
weekly, and give religious instruction ; and that each
day, when prayers were read in the schoolroom, the Pro-
testant children should retire.

The next day, as I entered the parlor, the young Pro-
testants were passing in, while the Catholics were pray-
ing above — a very accommodating arrangement to keep
both religions from contamination.

Being obliged to leave that day, I can say little of
Kilkenny, only that the streets were narrow, and* the
^ec£^rLl:^ saticy"afl.- . elsewhere, . demanding a penny
""after a" "positive refusal. The coachman and waiters
were more rapacious than "any T"tad seen; one posi-
tively demanded payment for opening the lid of the
c6ach-boot, and .dropping in a small carpet-bag. Six
beggars accosted me at once, passing five other per- .

sons who were on the car, till my patience was ex- /

86 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. v.

changed for disgust. What a disgraceful state of
things, that a body of people should become public
nuisances, when there has been no famine nor pestilence
in the land, and where the rich soil might well reward
the husbandman, if the government were suited to its
condition.

We set off for Urlingford with a car so loaded, that
none but Irishmen would have suffered the inconve-
nience patiently. I was going to Urlingford to visit the
parents of nine servant girls who had lived with me in
New York, all from one parish, though of different
families ; and when within five miles of the place, I
asked the driver if he knew a widow of the name

of . A commonly-dressed man, seated on

the luggage above my head, stooped down and whis-
pered, " Are you not Mary H's mistress ?" I answer-
ed in the affirmative, and he made such an outcry that
coachman and passengers entreated to know what could
bewitch the man. He alarmed me, he shook me,
and called me all manner of good names, regretting
that he was a tetotaler, that he could not " trate"
me, that the parish had looked for me till their hearts
were broke. His volubility never ceased till we
reached Johnstown, where the car left us, leaving a
walk of more than two miles, to my destination. Here
a raspberry cordial was presented to me, and we passed
through the little village, followed by men, women,
and children, who were all told by my gallant that
I was Mary H.'s mistress. Each one proffered 'the
hand, saying " welcome, welcome to Ireland." We
entered the house of a man calling himself a doctor,
who showed us to a beautiful garden, when he
whispered in the ear of my friend, that he wished the
privilege of removing a wart from my face. I supposed
eome of his medicinal herbs were to be the medicine. I
declined for the present, when he assured me it was
by saying a few words over the wart that he could re-
move it, my guide testifying that he had known many
a cure in the same way. I begged the miracle might
be deferred till I could call again, and he then insisted

CHAP. v.J CO. OF KILKENNY. 87

I should wait and be sent in his car. Assuring him
the walk would be pleasant, we passed out, and were
invited into a smoky cabin, and I went through the
etceteras of an Irish welcome. The doctor's car ar-
rived, and proved to be a dray, with a peat-kish upon
it. To me it was a curiosity. I had seen the country-
women returning from selling peat, cowering in one of
these vehicles, but never expected to be so elevated my-
self; but elevated I was, sitting upon the bottom, my
back to the herse, and my companion in like condition
by my side.

And now began my cabin life. I had read with the
deepest interest, in the writings of Charlotte Elizabeth,
that the peasantry of the county of Kilkenny were unri-
valled in kindness ; but burning words from graphic
pens would faintly delineate what I there experienced
from that interesting people.

We reached our destination, and alighting from the
kish, I was told, for the honor of the spot, that here,
some two hundred years ago, lived a noble lord who had
twenty noble sons. With these he daily rode out,
with each an attendant, on twenty noble horses, all
shod with silver shoes. I was desired to stay out-
side till the way should be prepared for my recep-
tion. In a moment I was ushered in as a u fine gal he
had found in Kilkenny." The family were sitting at
their supper of potatoes and buttermilk, around a na-
ked deal table, upon which the potatoes were poured.
The widow, two grown up sons, and a grandson, con-
stituted the group ; and when I was seated, all for a
moment were silent. " This is Mary's mistress," said
my companion. Simultaneously every potato was
dropped, all rose, and with a kind of unaffected dig-
nity reached me the hand, saying, u Welcome to our
cabin !" They then sat down, and all was silent again.
" We've been long waitin' for ye," said the mother,
" and was in dread that ye might be lost ; but ye must
be wairy and in want of the tay." I assured her that
a potato would be a greater relish. " Ye can't ate the
potato," said she, the sons joining ir* the assertion,

88 CO. OP KILKENNY. [CHAP. v.

till by actual experiment, I soon convinced them to
the contrary. The reader should be informed that the
daughter of this widow had, in three years service at
my house, sent home £40, which had not only kept her
mother in tea and bread, but had given them all the
" blessed tobacco" besides. " She had been home,"
the old woman told me, " on a visit, and made such an
overturnin' in the cabin that they had like to be de-
stroyed ; not a hap'orth of a pig, duck, or hen, could
take it's bit in the place 'f not a straw could be left upon
the flure in the mornin' ; and now," she added, uwe
will all be kilt if ye have not a clane bed and a nice bit
to ate." To do her justice, her place was cleanly,
although two comely pigs that were fattening for the
fair, and a goodly number of turkeys and ducks took
their repast in the cabin on the remains of the supper.

My bedstead was behind the cupboard, in the
kitchen, meeting the wall on one side and the cupboard
on the other, with a little aperture at the head
for an entrance. This was the widow's bed-room,
and here, upon a soft feather-bed, I was put ; but the
sheet, the sheet, — a married daughter had taken her
clothes to wash, and she must put me in one she had
used herself. She was greatly troubled. Giving
her all the comfort in my power on the subject, she
bade me good night ; and though I would not wish
the reader ever to be packed in feathers in such a nar-
row box in a hot August night, yet I am not unwilling
that he should know that my first night in a cabin, with
all its concomitants, was a sleepless one, and one which
can never be forgotten. The dawning of light found
the good woman stealthily peeping around the cup-
board, and with a shake of the head, I heard her
whisper, " Ah ! she didn't lie down in her bed, the
cratur." She crept to the hearth, made her peat-fire,
swept every vestige of dirt from the earthen floor, and
sat down to smoke. Her sons soon joined her, each
in his turn taking a " blast at the pipe," and then
walked slowly out, "for," said the mother, "she's
wairy, and a fut of ye mustn't be movin'." That day

CHAP.V.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 89

was a memorable one. In this parish lived a young
married girl who had been a servant in my house in
New York ; she had returned and was living a mile
distant ; she had been aroused at midnight by the man
who conducted me to the parish, and early the next
morning she was at the door. Anne was young, hand-
some, and tidy, and had been a great favorite in my
house. I was a little concealed when she entered,
and did not recognize her till she fell on my neck and
wept. " Ah ! and it's ye that may bawl, when yer
two eyes meet the one that took you a slip, and made
ye the thriftiest woman for the man that owns ye in
all the parish." Anne spoke not, nor could she for
some time. " And do I see you ? and what can we
do for you in this humble place ? John is waiting to
see you, but would not come with me, till I had seen
you first." "Ah! and John's the lad that's caught
the clane bird." " What shall we do for you ?" was
again the question. " You cannot stay in our cabins ;
they are not fitting ; you must come with me ; I know
best what you want, and will get what you say."
The whole parish was now in a stir, work was sus-
pended, and a general levee held. They talked of
building bonfires ; they talked of uniting and buying
a sheep to kill, though not one had eaten a dinner of
flesh since Christmas. The grey-headed and the little
child were there to welcome me, to thank me for
" thinking of the like of such poor bodies," and from
some miles around visitors called before the setting of
the sun to look at the American stranger, and bid her
God speed. " What will she ate, the cratur ? it's not
the potato that raired her." Two children begged the
honor of going seven miles in quest of fruit, and went.
Night and rain overtook them, yet they persevered,
slept away through the night, and cheerfully returned
the next day with two pears and a spoonful of black-
berries, which was all they could procure. All went
away sorrowful that so u nice a body should be so
trated," and all asked me to visit their cabins, " though
they were not fittin' for such a lady."

90 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. v.

The next morning Anne again called to invite me to
her house, and to say she had been sent by a few in the
parish, to invite me to attend a field dance which was
to be on the next day, and the Sabbath. In surprise I
was about to answer, when Anne said, u I knew you
would not, and told them so, but they begged I would
say that they had no other day, as all were at work,
and sure God wouldn't bo hard upon 'em, when they
had no other time, and could do nothing else for the
stranger." I thanked them heartily for their kind feel-
ings, and declined. Judge my confusion, when about
sunset on Sabbath evening, just after returning from
Johnstown, where I had attended church, the cabin door
opened, and a crowd of all ages walked in, decently
attired for the day, and without the usual welcomes or
any apology, the hero who first introduced me seated
himself at my side, took out his flute, wet his fingers,
saying, " This is for you, Mrs. N., and what will you
have ?" A company were arranged for the dance, and
so confounded was I that my only answer was, " I can-
not tell." He struck up an Irish air, and the dance
began. I had nothing to say, taken by surprise as I
was ; my only strength was to sit still.

This dance finished, the eldest son of my hostess
advanced, made a low bow, and invited me to lead the
next dance. I looked on his glossy black slippers, his
blue stockings snugly fitted up to the knee, his cor-
duroys above them, his blue coat and brass buttons,
and had no reason to hope that, at my age of nearly
half a century, I could ever expect another like offer.
However I was not urged to accept it. Improper as it
might appear, it was done as a civility, which, as a
guest in his mother's house and a stranger, he thought,
and all thought (as I was afterwards told) he owed me.
The cabin was too small to contain the three score and
ten who had assembled, and with one simultaneous
movement, without speaking, all rushed out, bearing
me along, and placed me upon a cart before the door,
the player at my right hand. And then a dance began,
which, to say nothing of the day, was to me of no

CHAP, v.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 91

ordinary kind. Not a laugh — not a loud word was
heard ; no affected airs, which the young are prone to
assume ; but as soberly as though they were in a fune-
ral procession, they danced for an hour, wholly for my
amusement, and for my welcome. Then each ap-
proached, gave me the hand, bade me God speed,
leaped over the style, and in stillness walked away.
It was a true and hearty Irish welcome, in which the
aged, as well as the young, participated. A matron of
sixty, of the Protestant faith, was holding by the hand
a grandchild of seven years, and standing by the cart
where I stood ; and she asked when they had retired,
if I did not enjoy it ? " What are these wonderful
people ?" was my reply. I had never seen the like.

I visited the dwelling of Anne, and found her with
many little comforts not common to her class. " Why
do you not wear a bonnet ?" I inquired. " I came
back," she replied, u from New York to live in a cabin,
and I must not put myself above others who associate
with me." John was industrious and thrifty, and proud
of a visit from the mistress of the girl who had come
from the other side of the waters. Twice, while in the
parish, a cleanly-dressed woman called to see me, but
did not invite me to her cabin, because, she said, she
would be ashamed to do so, though she really wished
me to go. I was told of it, and the third time she
called, I asked her if I might accompany her home. She
was delighted, and said, " I was in dread to ask ye,
but was ashamed." Her cabin was perfect neatness.
At night, under pretence of getting a bucket of water
at a distant spring, she walked an Irish mile to buy a
penny roll of coarse bread for me — a loaf of bread she
had not seen in her cabin that summer. Slipping it
into my hand, she said, u Don't let William know it, or I
must tell where I got the penny." I called at the hum-
blest place I had ever seen one morning, and found a
poor widow and her daughter eating their potatoes. I
went out, and sodH reached a running stream so deep
that I could not cross without wading. While I hesi-
tated what to do, the widow called after me, " Stop,

92 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. v.

lady, and I'll carry ye on my back ; ye'll be destroyed."
She had pulled off her shoes and stockings in her hut,
and ran after me, and though small in stature, yet she
assured me she was " strong, and sure on the fut," and
could carry me safely. I positively refused such a com-
pliment from grey hairs, and with great difficulty turned
her back, and went myself in another direction.

A sister of Anne's was about setting off for New
York to look for service. Two brothers and two sis-
ters had previously gone there, and succeeded well.
She was to go with three others at ten o'clock in the
evening, for Dublin. The time arrived, and the
whole parish, young men and maidens, aged men
and children, had assembled. For an hour previous
all was silent. The hour drew near, the girl arose,
flung herself upon the neck of a young companion,
and gave a most piteous howl. It was reciprocated by
the other, who cried, " Aw, Kitty, will ye crass the
wide ocean, and will we never again dance in the
field ? O my darlin, my comrade, and why will ye go ?
O ho ! and what will we do ?" Kisses and sobs sup-
pressed further utterance. The aged mother then
approached. " O mavourneen, and why do ye break
the heart of her who raired ye ? Was there no turf
in the bog — no pratees in the pit — that ye leave the
hairth of yer poor ould mother ? O my darlin', my only
vourneen, and it's nine of ye I've raired, and as soon
as yer heels are out of the ashes, ye run away from me,
my darlin'. And what will ye do in the wilds of
America ?" She clapped her kands, and cried, " My
darlin', my fair hair'd darlin', and was it for this I
raired ye ?" The howling now became louder ; one
after another arose, and united in the lamentation.
Then a man from the midst cried out, " And be gone
from the house, and stop your bawlin' ; ye go to sarve
yourselves, and why do ye bawl about the thing that's
yer own choosin' ?" He elevated a stick he had in his
hand, and made a signal towards the^loor. All rushed
forth, following the girls to the car, and the burst was
more violent — the welkin resounded with howlings,

CHAP, v.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 93

while the mother sat down in the corner upon a bench,
clapping her hands, rocking her body, and muttering,
" O, aw, my fair hair'd little girl, and why did I say ye
might go ? Ah, fool that I was, and these ould eyes
will never see ye again. Ye'r gone, my girl, mavour-
neen, my darlinV

An invitation had been sent me from Urlingford to
visit a family of respectability, a son of which was in
New York. This invitation introduced me to the
families of the gentry, some of whom I found intelli-
gent, and all hospitable and well bred. In the family
of a flourishing shop-keeper I passed many pleasant
and profitable days. The man had thought of many
things besides selling broad-cloths and muslins, though
he had made quite a fortune by that. They were Ro-
man Catholics ; unwavering in their opinions, but not
illiberal to those who differed from them. A Bible
was in the house, and presented to me whenever I
might wish to use it. I was present more than once
when the family were assembled at evening for prayers,
and they kindly said, " We will not ask you into the
room, as it might be unpleasant ; we wish every person
to enjoy his religion in his own way."

In this family I attended a wake, the first I had seen
in Ireland. An aged womanT^tbe^nother of the shop-
keeper, died while I was there ; ninety years had whi-
tened her locks ; she had been a useful mother, trained
her children to habits of industry, and lived to see them
thriving in business, and respected in the world. On
her tongue had been the law of kindness, and her hands
were always stretched out to< the poor and needy.
When I visited the house of her son, feeble as she was,
she would leave her chamber, and go into the kitchen
to take care that my dinner was suited to my taste.
The workmen in the house were her peculiar care.
From many miles round the rich and the poor assem-
bled. " Never," said one, u when I was a slip of a boy,
did I go on a moipin' to buy the loaf at her shop, but
she put a bit of bread in my hand to ate on my way
home." She was laid in an upper chamber, upon a

94 CO. OP KILKENNY. [CHAP. v.

"bed covered with white ; she was dressed in a dark
brown frock, with white ruffles at the wrist ; a square
cloth fringed with white was on her breast, with the
initials of the order of the " Blessed Virgin,'' to which
she belonged. A neat white cap, with black ribbon,
and a white handkerchief about her neck finished the
dress. Curtains of white, tied with black ribbons, were
about her bed ; and the usual appendages of candles
and consecrated clay were at the foot, with a picture of
the Virgin and Child hanging over her head.

The house was large ; every room was occupied, and
though the attendants were gathering from neighbor-
ing parishes through the night, yet all was stillness.
" In former days," whispered an aged matron, " ye
would not see it so ; before Father Mathew put down
the whiskey, it would frighten the life of ye. A bucket
of whiskey would be on the Sure, with a cup in it, and
not a sowl on 'em but would take the sup till their brain
would be crack'd ; and then the singin', the jum-
pin', and tearin', till the priest would be called in with
his whip, and bate 'em, the divils, till they all was
quiet." Here was no liquor, but cordials ; a warm
supper in the different rooms was prepared, and every
new guest was invited to sit down and partake. Here
the rich and the poor had " met together" to mingle
their tears, and not an untidy garment pained the eye.
The hour of burial was six in the morning. At five,
a breakfast of steak, ham, and fowl was provided for
the nearer friends, and those who were to accompany
the corpse seven miles, where it was to be interred.
The corpse was then put into a coffin of black, with
the consecrated clay about it, and was placed upon the
bed ; the family came in, and gave her the parting kiss ;
one servant, who had been a laborer about the pre-
mises for years, went to the coffin, looked at her for a
moment, kissed her, then covered his face with both
hands, and burst into loud weeping. " Well may he
cry, poor Pat !" said a servant girljn" for many a good
bit has he had from her hand ; and when I come to
the side of her bed a few days ago, she said, ' Do take

CHAP.V.J CO. OF KILKENNY. 95

care of poor Pat, and see that he has enough to eat.
I am afraid he will be neglected when I am gone.'"
Poor Pat was simple. These testimonials of kindness
to the poor are precious mementos of the dead, and will
be held in sweet remembrance, while the memory of the
oppressor shall rot.

The white linen was taken from about the bed,
pinned over the heads of the old women, and tied in
the middle of their backs by black ribbon ; the coffin
was placed upon the body of a carriage, and the two old
women were seated upon it. The driver, with a band
of white linen about his hat, led on the long proces-
sion. It was a Sabbath morning ; the sun was rising ;
I thought of the sepulchre ; I thought of the women
that were early there ; I saw the stone that was rolled
away ; I looked in ; I saw the clean linen in which
Joseph had wrapped the body : I knew the Saviour
had risen, and I turned away to think of the wake at
Kilkenny.

Saturday evening. — After having paid an agreeable
visit in the vicinity, I started by moonlight on a car
for Urlingford, accompanied by a faithful servant
girl, to guide the horse. I sat with my back towards
the animal ; for this is the way of riding on a " common
car." When within a mile of the town, we heard
music, and supposed it to be one of the Temperance
bands with which the country abounds. But on coming
nearer, we saw a motley company of men and women,
with spades and baskets, some on foot and some on
cars, following the sound of fife, flute, and drum ; and
upon inquiry we found it was " the faction."

The custom of the peasantry, in this part at least of
the country, has been to assemble in hundreds, and
reap down a harvest, or dig a farmer's potatoes, taking
their musicians with them, who play through the day
to amuse the laborers, and escort them home at night.
This they never do but for those whom they respect,
and the generous farmer who has fed and paid his la-
borers well, is sure to meet with a return of this kind.
Women will go out and bind sheaves, rake, and toss

96 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. v.

hay, pick up potatoes, &c.; and the sight to a stranger
is not only novel, but pleasing. The ambition mani-
fested to accomplish much, and to do it well, is often
beyond that of a paid laborer, and the hiliarity over
their dinner and supper of potatoes and butter, and
" sup of milk," is to a generous mind a pleasant sight ;
for, drunk, or sober, rich or poor, it is the Irishman's
character to remember a kindness, and to do what he
can to repay it. We passed this interesting company,
listening to their music till it died away in the distance ;
and though I knew they were going home to lie down
in floorless cabins, with no prospect of better days, yet
for the moment I saw more to envy than to pity ; for
these people are so happy with little, and make so
much from nothing, that you often find them enjoying
when others would be repining.

I had seen a dance, a wake, and a faction, but had
never seen a fair ; and being invited to occupy a seat
in a chamber at Urlingford, which overlooked the field
of action, I did so. " You'll not see such fun, ma'am,
now," said my companion, " as you would have seen
before the days of Father Matthew. Then we had a
power of bloody noses, broken bones, and fine work
for the police ; but ye'll see fine cattle, and fat pigs ;
and may-be it's the bagpipes ye'd like."

By ten o'clock all was in motion, and fatter cattle,
finer pigs, fowls, and butter (none of which could the
peasant ever enjoy) never adorned a fair. The first
interesting object which closely fixed my attention
was a rosy-cheeked, short, plump girl of about twenty,
perched upon a stand, crying like an auctioneer, " Come,
boys, here's the chance ; only a ha'penny ! Come now
while it's a goin'; try your luck." What this luck
could be I could not make out ; the ha'pennies were
continually pouring in, but what was the equivalent
was not explained till all was over. She had a lottery-
bag, containing all sorts of trifles, their names written
on tickets, such as pins, needles, combs, tapes, ribbons,
thread, &c. The purchaser drew a ticket from the
bag, and might find perhaps a great pin, a needle, or a

CHAP. v.J CO. OF KILKENNY. 97

bit of tape ; now and then the anxious eyes of the ex-
pectant might greet an article of value twice the worth
of his ha'penny, while many went away with sorrowful
hearts. It was said her lottery-bag at night was an
exulting remuneration for her day's exertion, the cost
of all that it contained in the morning being but very
trifling. A ludicrous lesson of unlettered human na-
ture was displayed by a company of tinkers selling
asses. To recommend his own, to lower the value of
his neighbor's, and to be heard above the rest, is the
struggle of every dealer in these commodities. To
accomplish these desirable objects, it must not be
supposed that the forms of etiquette would be strictly
regarded, and sometimes a box on the ear or the cheek,
and a pulling of caps, if not of hair, among the women,
(for the wives of these operatives are on the spot also)
make up a ludicrous variety. The dress and dialect,
the developement of self, the spontaneous wit, with
the humble appearance of the uncomplaining donkey,
make the scene to an unaccustomed eye one of amusing
interest.

One matron was this day carried from the field by
the police. Leaving my eminence, I mingled in the
group, hoping to be unobserved ; but the good cabin
woman, Mary's mother, found me out, and invited me
into a house. I soon found Father Mathew was not
there, for a young female was dealing out u the good
creature" to a happy company ; bagpipes were playing
in the street door, and a jolly group were keeping time
overhead by loud stamping. I was invited into a
back apartment, where sat a company of men and
women at the upper end of the table, with bread, tea,
and whiskey before them, and a huge hog, dressed for
the market, swinging to and fro over the lower end.
u Welcome, welcome to Ireland !" came from every
mouth, accompanied by a bowl of tea from a man, and
a glass of whiskey from a woman. This finished the
Urlingford fair ; and turning away, I left the room
without either tea or whiskey.

The fair, as a whole, was not censurable ; never on
5

98 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. v.

any public day in any country had I heard so little
profanity and noise, or seen so little disorder and dis-
puting, the tinkers excepted. The peasants, too, were
tidily dressed, and with great uniformity ; the men
in blue coats, corduroy breeches, and blue stock-
ings ; whilst a blue petticoat, with a printed dress
turned back and pinned behind, coarse shoes, and
blue or black stockings, (when they have shoes) a
blue cloak, with a hood to put over the head, in
case of rain, constitute the dress of the women ; and
thus attired, a Kilkenny peasant seeks no change in
storm or sunshine. The habits of cooking and eating
have scarcely varied for two centuries ; their cabins,
their furniture, have undergone little or no change ;
the thatched roofs, the ground floor, the little window,
the stone or mud wall, the peat fire, the clay chimney,
the wooden stool, the pot, and the griddle, have pro-
bably been the inheritance of many generations. As
to cleanliness, their habits are varied, as with all other
people ; and if few are scrupulously tidy, few are dis-
gustingly filthy. Though every peasant in the Eme-
rald Isle knows that he belongs to the "lower order,"
(for his teachers and landlords are fond of telling him
so,) the Kilkenny rustic, by his self-possessed manner
in presence of his superior, says, u I also am a man ;"
and you do not see that cringing servility ; you do not
hear " yer honor," " yer reverence," u my lord," and
" my lady" so frequently as among many of their class
in other parts of Ireland. They are not so wretchedly
poor as many ; for though few can afford the " mate,"
except at Christmas or Easter, yet most of them can
purchase an occasional loaf, and u the sup of tay," and
all can, and all do, by " hook or by crook./' get the
" blessed tobacco." They are fond of dancing, and a
child is taught it in his first lessons of walking. The
bagpipes and fiddle are ever at their feasts, especially
the latter ; and the blind performer always receives a
cordial " God bless you." The sweet harp has long
since lost her strings, except perhaps in some ancient
family, and there it is nursed as some valued plant, and
as a memento of ancient Tara's halls. The gene-

CHAP, vi.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 99

ration that is passing away have but little education ;
many of them cannot read, but the children are rapidly
advancing. The national schools are doing much
good. One which I visited in Urlingford gave the best
specimen of reading I ever heard in any country. A
class of boys read a chapter on the nature of the atmos-
phere ; the teacher then requested them to give a spe-
cimen of synonymous reading. This was readily done,
by dropping every noun, in the course of the lesson,
and giving a corresponding one of the same import. It
was so happily executed, that the listener would
not imagine but the word was read out of the book. I
was handed a book, and was requested to select a
chapter where I pleased. I did so, and in no case did
a pupil hesitate to read fluently. Their specimens of
writing were praiseworthy, and their knowledge of
arithmetic in all the schools is beyond what I could
expect.

CHAPTER VI.

Cabin Life — Urlingford Spa — Rebuff from a Clergyman — New Birmingham
Colliery— Village of Grange— The Police— A Good Methodist— Mr. Barker of
Kilcooley— Yankee Doodle— Residence in the Neighborhood— Visit to Thurles
— Ancient Abbey of Holy Cross — Journey to Clonmel, Dungarvan, and Cappo-
quin — Visit to the Trappist Monastery of Mount Mellary.

THE habits of cabin life and cabin hospitality have
so much sameness, that the specimen which follows may
answer for the whole.

I had walked much through the day, and about
seven in the evening reached the cabin of a woman
whose daughter had been a servant in my house in
New York. My reception was most cordial. In a
corner, where a bed might have stood, was a huge bank
of turf, and a pile of straw for the pigs. There was
but one room beside, and the family consisted of some

100 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. vi.

five or six individuals. The cabin door being open,
the pigs, geese, ducks, hens, and dogs walked in and
out at option.

After the usual salutations, the girl was bidden to go
out and dig some potatoes ; the pot was hung over the
fire, the potatoes were boiled, and the table was removed
into the adjoining room, and a touch from the finger of
the matron was the signal for me to follow her into sup-
per. On a naked deal table stood a plate of potatoes
and a mug of milk, of which I was invited to partake.
The potatoes must be eaten from the hand, without
knife, fork, or plate ; and the milk taken in sups from
the mug. I made no delay, but applied my nails to
divesting the potatoe of its coat, and my hostess urged
the frequent use of milk, saying, " it was provided on
purpose for you, and you must take it." It must be
remembered that a sup of sweet milk among the poor in
Ireland, is as much a rarity and a luxury as a slice of
plum-pudding in a farm-house in America. I ate plen-
tifully, both from hunger and courtesy, and we then re-
turned to the kitchen.

The good man of the house soon entered, and gave
me as hearty a welcome as an Irishman could give ;
and the neighboring women and children gathered in,
till the pile of turf and every stool was occupied. A
cheerful peat fire was burning upon the hearth ; the
children were snugly cowered in each corner ; two
large pigs walked in, and adjusted their nest upon the
straw ; two or three straggling hens were about the
room, which the women caught, and raising the broken
Jid of a chest in one end of the apartment, she put
them in ; the dog was bidden to drive out the geese ;
the door was shut, and the man then turning to me,
said, u You see how these pigs know their place, and
when it's a little cowld not a ha'porth of 'em will stay
out of doors ; and we always keep a handful of straw in
that corner for their bed " The company seemed quite
inclined to stay ; but the good woman, looking well to
my comfort, called me at an early hour to the next
room, and pointing to a bed which had been erected

CHAP, vi.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 101

for my accommodation, said, " This troop here would
be talking all night ; ye must be tired, and see what
I've got for ye." This was a bed fixed upon chairs, and
made so wide that two could occupy it ; and she as-
sured me that so glad was she to see me, that she would
sleep in a part of it by my side. It was certainly an
extra extension of civility to leave the good man, who,
by the way, had two daughters and a son of sixteen to
sleep under the same covering, and in the same room
with us. His bed was made of a bundle or two of
straw spread upon rough sticks, and a decent woollen
covering put over it. My bed, so far as sheets were
concerned, was certainly clean, aud in a few moments
the kind woman and her husband and children were qui-
etly laid to rest for the night. When all was still, a
half hour of profitable reflection prepared me for a sweet
night of rest.

In my own native land I had slept under rich cano-
pies, in stately mansions of the rich, in the plain,
wholesome dwelling of the thrifty farmer, the log-cabin
of the poor, and under tents on the hunting-ground of
the Indian, but never had I been placed where poverty,
novelty, and kindness were so happily blended. I fell
asleep, nor did the barking of a dog, the squealing of a
pig, or the breathing of man, woman, or child arouse
me, till I heard, at sun-rising, " Well, Maggie, how are
ye this mornin' ? D'ye know I was lonesome without
ye." u God be praised," responded the good woman,
4' and I hope ye are well, Johnny." I looked into tne
Castle at Windsor, where Prince Albert, Victoria, and
the young princes were reclining, and I very much que-
ried whether their feelings were more kindly or more
happy this morning, than were those of these unsophis-
ticated peasants.

Now for the breakfast. The good man and the
children had eaten their potatoes before I left the bed-
room ; and when I went out, " Maggie," said the hus-
band, u will ye do as I desired ye ?" " To be sure I
will," said Maggie, putting her cloak over her head,
and going out. Giving me " God bless yez,'' and

102 CO. OP KILKENNY. [CHAP. vi.

tendering his best thanks, he said, " I must go into
town and leave ye ; God speed ye on yer journey, and
bless ye, for coming to see the poor."

An hour passed before Maggie returned, for she had
ditches to cross and hedges to pass, to get a piece of
bread for the u American stranger." The table was
spread with bread, butter, a cup of tea, and a sup of
milk. The tea and butter I declined, (as I do not use
these articles), but the bread and sup of milk made me
a comfortable breakfast.

When I had finished, and the women and children
had called in from abroad, to say good-bye to the
" American stranger," my kind hostess said, " 1 must
show ye to the road, which will save ye a good bit ; for
I love ye as well as I do my own gal that sarved ye."
The walk was long and somewhat difficult, but the kind-
ness and cheerfulness of my good guide made it quite
tolerable. After setting me in a straight course, she
said, "And the good God bless ye, and speed ye on
yer return to your own country, and bless ye well, the
cratur ! for comin' to see us."

Urlingford Spa is supposed to contain mineral qua-
lities of a medicinal nature so efficacious, that for years
it has been quite a resort for invalids from various
parts of the country. A brother of the good woman
with whom I had first lodged, kept a house for the
accommodation of visitors, and had invited me to visit
them and pass the night. A four miles walk up a
tedious hill made the sight of the thatched inn a wel-
come treat to my eyes. The family consisted of the
father and mother, three daughters, and a son or two,
who all assured me they were u right glad to see me."
But the house was so filled with company, that they
had no room to put me in but the kitchen. " What
must be done ?" was the question. u Where must the
cratur be put, and what would she ate ?" I assured
them that no delicacy or luxury was required, and a
piece of bread and a couple of pears made me a com-
fortable meal ; and the old man taking a hint from his
spouse that the room was wanted, invited me to visit

CHAP, vi.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 103

the Spa. A little stone enclosure, with a gate, secured
the well from intruders. The water was running from a
little pipe into a reservoir, and here had people of all
nations resorted for more than a century ; yet no bath-
ing establishment had been provided, nor were any
accommodations prepared for the visitor, except what
a thatched cabin, with corresponding conveniences,
could afford.

A dandy with whip and cap came driving up in a
single gig, drawn by a prancing horse. Addressing in
Irish the old woman who was attending at the water-
pipe, they held a jovial chat. At length, taking out
his watch, and saying, " I must be off; it's my dinner
hour;" he whirled away: and as he turned to go, a
young woman remarked to me, " He's a humorous
fellow ; he's always the same, as full of fun as ye see
him now." I inquired who he was. She replied,
" The priest of the parish — a Catholic, to be sure,
ma'am." " He seems to be very well fed," I remarked.
u And why shouldn't he," was her reply, " when he
has a large domain, and everything in his house —
money and attendants in plenty ?" The old man now
invited me to take a view of the country, from the top
of an eminence which overlooked a valley that extended
for many miles on either hand, whilst immense ranges
of mountains, at a distance, surrounded the whole.
The view was beautifully grand ; the air was the purest
and sweetest imaginable, and the fields of grain in
every direction invited the sickle ; the hawthorn hedges,
cutting in fanciful sections the whole landscape, di-
vided one kind from another in tasteful variety ; while
the white cattle, which now so much abound in Ire-
land, and the white thatched cottages of the peasant,
were spotting hill and dale. We then descended, and
entered the door of the good man, when a sister met
us, saying, " I don't know where in the world, ma'am,
we can put ye, for the rooms are all full." I felt the
repulse keenly ; for my long and fatiguing walk, and
the lateness of the hour, made it look like an impos-
sibility to proceed any further. I sat down upon a

104 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. vi.

stone at the gate, not knowing what next to do, when
two stout Irishmen, who were lodgers in the house,
kindly approached, saying "Do'nt sit here, ma'am ; walk
in ; surely there must be some place for a stranger." I
refused, saying I could rest where I sat, as the family
had informed me there was no room forme in the house.
For a time the case looked desperate, for I had been
previously told that every cabin was full, and it was
quite too late to walk four miles to find a lodging.
The old man and his wife now came, and stood in
silence, leaning upon the wall over the place where I
was sitting, seeming to say, " I wish I could find a place
for ye ; for ye're a stranger."

At length the old man, seconded by his wife, said,
" Come in, come in, and sit in the kitchen ; ye can't
stay here ; we are sorry we can't do better ; we had
hoped that some of our lodgers would have gone before
ye come, for we wanted ye here." I followed them
into their floorless kitchen. Sitting by a comfortable
turf fire, I became drowsy ; the two kind Irishmen were
sitting in the room, and supposing me to be asleep,
one said, " Poor thing ! she must feel quair in a
strange country alone. I wonder how her people
would trate a stranger in her situation — would they
trate her tenderly?" u Aw ! to be sure they would,"
answered his friend ; " the Americans have always
showed great love for the Irish." " To. be sure they
have," answered the woman of the house. Thinking
it time to awake, I inquired the time ; it was late, and
I had not been told that a lodging could be provided ;
and rising from my chair, I said, u I must seek some
place to stop for the night." " And that ye won't,"
responded the woman, "we will do what we can."
And her husband, with much decision, said, " ye can't
and shan't go." The question was thus settled, and a
daughter was sent out to get a bed from a neighbor's,
which she brought in upon her back, and adjusted upon
chairs ;^ and after a repast of some potatoes and
salt, without knife or fork, I lay down in the kitchen
in a clean bed, and not a being in all Ireland slept

CHAP, vi.] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 105

more sweetly than I, with my body-guard wrapped in
her cloak on the floor at my side.

I arose refreshed, and after taking my breakfast
of the same materials as the supper, I said good morn-
ing, and resumed my journey. A long walk down the
hill led me near the extensive domain of a Protestant
clergyman, on whom. I had been requested to call, as
a frank, intelligent man, who could give me informa-
tion concerning Protestantism in the part of the coun-
try where he was located. I had called the day before,
and was told by a man servant that he had gone to
Kilkenny with his wife, and would be back in the
evening. " Call," said he, " in the morning, and
he will be at home." The hall-door was open when
[ ascended the steps. A well-dressed lady crossed the
hall without welcome or nod. I rang the bell, and the
same servant appeared, saying, the master has not
returned." I hesitated, having no doubt that the per-
son who crossed the hall was his wife ; and descending
to the next lower step, I leaned against the railing.
The servant walked in, and in a moment the door was
shut in a violent manner, and I walked away. He had
a rich living, and read his prayers weekly to a flock of
perhaps one in one hundred of the population of his
parish.

My next visit was to the Colliery at New Birming-
ham. At an early hour, the vehicle was to set off on
which Lwas to have a seat. This was a baker's cart,
and I was perched on the top of the box, with no
resting place for my feet but the back of the horse,
which required some exertion for me to reach, as
well as strength of nerve to keep them there. A
brother of like occupation with my companion ac-
companied us, and as the carts passed the cabin,
the inmates poured out, not only to see the li Ameri-
can stranger," but to admire the throne on which
she was elevated. The merry driver did his duty
in pointing out every object of curiosity on the
road, as well as procuring me a welcome to Ireland
from every man, woman, and child that we met, and
f>*

106 CO. OP TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vi.

an invitation to call on them on my return. One old
man crossed a field to see me and invite me to his house,
saying, " I have heard of ye, and I give ye a hearty wel-
come to our country." Promising all as I passed that
I would call on my return, we moved slowly through
the settlement. Reaching the foot of a hill, at the
corner of a wall lay a female wrapped in a cloak. Ap-
proaching her, I uncovered her face ; she looked slily
upon me, and drew the cloak over her head, when
the driver called out, " she will not speak to ye ;
she is a silly cratur, who sleeps out of doors, going
where she pleases ; and when the storm is strong,
somebody gets her and locks her in ; but she bawls so
loud they can't keep her ; she's innocent, and has lived
so for years."

A few little neat houses now opened upon us in a
village called Grange, and the police (who are met all
over this country, giving quite a relief to the eye),
came out from the barracks, and gave me a hearty
welcome. " And did you come from America to see
us — from that fine country ? and when do you return ?
I want to go to that land. I wish I could go with
ye." I asked, " Have you business enough to give you
exercise ?" " No indeed ! Father Mathew has so
changed every thing, that our profession is en-
tirely needless in some parts of the country." u I
wish I was in America, and so do we all," said
another.

A company of laborers repairing the road now
stopped as I approached. " And how much do you
have for this work ?'' I inquired. " But a little en-
tirely ; scarcely enough to give us bread ; and when
do ye go back? I wish I was there." " And how
much do you get a day ?" " Eight pence, ma'am ;
and it's but a little of the time we get that." " And
what do you eat?" " Eat ! ma'am, we eat potatoes
when we can get 'em, and right glad too we are to
have 'em." " And have you no bread?" "Bread!
ma'am. Faith ! that we don't ; if we can get a sup
of milk once a day, or a little salt, it's all we look for."

CHAP, vi.] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 107

" And how can you live on such scanty fare ?" " We
can't die, plase God ! and so we must live." " Are
ye all tetotalers 1" " Indeed we are ; and have ye any
in America ? and are you one, ma'am ?" On my
answering in the affirmative, and bidding them good
morning, they all said, " God speed ye ! God bless
ye ! and I wish I could go with ye."

These poor creatures, wherever I go, are truly ob-
jects of great compassion. They are subjected to a vir-
tual slavery, which is but a step in advance of the con-
dition of the American negro.

I could not escape a house or cabin without being
accosted, and I walked the distance of three miles up
and down a hill with all sorts of company ; some coming
to meet me, and invite me in to rest, offering me a po-
tato, or some milk ; till at length a man was called in
from the field by his daughter, to show me the colliers
at the mines. The machinery was in operation, and
the mines were eighty yards under ground, for the dis-
tance of three-quarters of a mile.

My letter of introduction was to Mr. Scanlin, a lo-
cal Methodist preacher, who acted as agent among the
miners, and also as a kind of missionary. His good
wife sent a little daughter to show me to his office.
He received me kindly, explained the machinery, etc.,
and introduced me to the miners, who welcomed me
heartily.

This agent was in appearance all that a Christian
should be ; unassuming, and full of that benevolence
which does not exhaust itself by words and tears, but
makes sacrifices of individual ease to promote the good
of others. He possessed talents which would adorn a
higher station than that of weighing coal and inspect-
ing mines ; but for a small salary he is spending his
time, and truly u condescending to men of low estate,"
to do what must be done, and what few possessing his
abilities would be willing to do. u Tell your mother,"
he said to his daughter, " that she must not let Mrs. N.
leave us to-night. }J His wife willingly seconded the

108 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vi.

hospitable invitation, and my stay was protracted to
two nights.

This mother acted as school-teacher to her children,
who were seven in number, and appeared to be tractable
pupils ; they were instructed to fear God and keep his
commandments, as the whole duty of man. I regretted
leaving this family, who had made my stay so pleasant ;
and leaving them, too, buried in coal-pits, and deprived
of the privilege of educating their children, or enjoying
life more congenial to minds of their stamp.

I visited the house and pleasure-grounds of an es-
tated gentleman near the mines. The gardener kindly
showed me the grounds of his master, presented me
with such fruits and vegetables as he thought I liked,
and introduced me to the dairy-maids, who showed me
the Irish manner of making a kind of cream-cheese.
This is done by putting the thick sour cream into a
cloth, hanging it up till the thinner part has dropped
from it, and then putting it into a hoop like a sieve,
and pressing it down tightly. The house was elegant,
the ottomans and stools covered with needle-work
wrought by the hands of the mother and daughters.
The servants spoke kindly of the master and mistress.
It is quite pleasing to find, here and there, a landlord
who sheds comparative comfort on his domestics and
poor tenants, and gives them cause to bless rather than
curse him in their hearts. u Here is a dispensary,"
said the housekeeper, " which the mistress keeps for the
poor, and when any of the tenantry are sick, they are
supplied with medicine gratis. The master keeps a
hundred men and women in his employ, including
miners, and pays them punctually the eight-pence a
day, beside granting them many extras, which greatly
lighten the burdens of the poor.

I found but one thing to regret in the good family
of the Methodist ; two gentlemen called, and the kind
woman, according to the usage of the country, pre-
sented her whiskey, not because she wished to do so,
but because they wanted it. I begged her to renounce

CHAP, vi.] CO. OP TIPPERARY. 109

this. wicked custom, and all who heard me acquiesced
in the correctness of my principle, but thought that
when taken in moderation the strong drink could do no
possible hurt. One of the party was a Roman Catho-
lic. He invited me to his house, and introduced me to
his wife, who made me feel quite at home, and her four
talented little sons wanted nothing but a little of Solo-
mon's rod to make them an ornament to society. Here
I was entertained with Irish legends and tales, which
lost none of their interest by the manner in which they
were related.

The celebrated estate of Kilcooley has descended by
hereditary title from the days of Cromwell, till it is now
lodged in the hands of one who shares largely in the
affections of all his tenants, especially the poor. The
wall surrounding his domain is said to be three miles in
extent, including a park containing upwards of three
hundred deer, and a wild spot for rabbits. A church,
and an ancient ivy-covered abbey of the most venerable
appearance, adorn a part of it.

But the pleasure of walking over these delightful
fields is enhanced by the knowledge that his tenants
are made so happy by his kindness. To every widow
he gives a pension of £12 a year ; and to every person
injuring himself in his employment, the same sum
yearly, as long as the injury lasts. His mother was all
kindness, and her dying injunction to him was, u To bo
good to the^poor." His house has been burned, leaving
nothing but the spacious wings uninjured. An elegant
library was lost. His mother, whom he ardently loved,
was buried in a vault on the premises ; and his grief at
her death was such that he left the domain for twelve
months. He supports a dispensary for the poor, who
resort to it twice a week, and receive medicine from a
physician who is paid some sixty pounds a year for his
attendance. I was introduced to the family of this
physician, to see his daughter, who had been a resident
in New York some six years, and hoped soon to return
thither to her husband and child still living there. As
T was seated, a little son of two years old, and born in

110 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vi.

America, stood near me. I asked his name ; " Yankee
Doodle, ma'am," was the prompt reply. This unex-
pected answer brought iny country, with every national
as well as social feeling to mind, and I clasped the sweet
boy in my arms. Let not the reader laugh ; he may
yet be a stranger in a foreign land. This name the
child gave himself, and insists upon retaining it. O !
those dear little children ! I hear their sweet voices
still : " God bless ye, lady, welcome to our country,'7
can never be forgotten. Nothing was neglected that
could contribute to my comfort. If I begged them to
take less trouble on my account, the daughter replied
that she had lived in America, and had been a partaker
of the hospitality there exercised towards strangers,
and knew well the comforts there enjoyed ; and that
all which could be done for an American stranger was
little enough. At first I supposed this extreme kind-
ness must soon wear out. Not so ; for months this
house was my home, and the last hour I spent in it was
if possible more friendly than the first.

While in this family, I attended the Protestant
church on Mr. Barker's domain, and heard the curate
read his prayers to a handful of parishioners, mostly
youth and children. By the assistance of a rich uncle
of his wife's, he can ride to church in a splendid car-
riage, which makes him tower quite above his little flock.
His salary is £75 per annum.

My visit among this hospitable people had been pro-
tracted partly by inclination, and partly by unavoida-
ble hindrances, until I had visited every house and
cabin in the neighborhood. I sometimes spent a day
in a farm-house, cooking, in the American style, a
pudding, cake, or pie, which to these bread-and-butter
eaters was a perfect anomaly. My talents, I began to
fear, were becoming too popular for my own interest,
and at length I made myself ready to depart. " If you
can stay," said the kind doctor, il don't leave us ; my
house shall be your home while you stay in Ireland ;
but if you must go, God speed you." It was then I
felt the worth of kindness. I was going out, scarcely

CHAP, vi.] CO. OF TIPPER ARY. ill

knowing where ; unprotected in a strange land ; and
where should I meet with such kind voices, and such
hearty welcomes again ? Hardly could my tongue
utter one word of gratitude for all the kind offices
shown me, and I gathered up my effects and myself
upon the car, accompanied by the doctor's kind wife,
who was going to convey me ten miles to Thurles, and
introduce me to her sister residing there.

The morning was pleasant, and had not my heart
been a little sad, it would have been congenial to every
feeling of my mind, so naturally fitted for the enjoyment
of rich scenery in nature.

Thurles is an ancient town in the county of Tip-
perary, somewhat neatly built. It contains a good
market-house, fine chapel, college for Catholics, nun-
nery, and charity-school, with a Protestant church, and
Methodist chapel. My reception here was cordial, and
the house in quite American taste. My stay was con-
tinued a day or two longer than I at first intended ;
and as Tuesday was market-day, it presented a fa-
vorable opportunity of seeing the peasantry, who ap-
peared more cleanly and comfortable than those of
many towns in Ireland, though much like Kilkenny.

In company with Mrs. W , and her sister, Mrs.

Burke, I took a ride of three miles to visit Holy Cross.
On our way we passed a splendid estate, now owned
by a gentleman who came into possession suddenly by
the death of the former owner, for whom he acted as
agent. Last Christmas they had been walking over
the premises in company ; on their return, the owner
met with a fall, and was carried home to die in a few
hours. It was found he had willed his great estate to
this agent, who is much elated at his happy exaltation.
Holy Cross was the most venerable curiosity I had yet
seen in all Ireland. We ascended the winding steps,
and looked forth upon the surrounding country, and
the view told well for the taste of O'Brien, who reared
this vast pile in 1076. The fort containing the chapel
is built in the form of a cross ; the perpendicular part
was that which we ascended. The architecture, the

112 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. vi.

ornamental work, and the roofs of all the rooms dis-
played skill and taste. The apartments for the monks,
the kitchen where their vegetable food was prepared,
but still more, the place where repose so many of their
dead were objects of deep interest. " Here," said the
old woman, who interpreted for us, " is the place of
saints," pointing to the graves. " Here lie my husband
and two children, and many a dark and hungry day
have I seen since I laid 'em there." Some of the in-
scriptions on the monuments were so defaced, that they
could not be decyphered, and the gravestones were so
huddled upon one another, that it was quite a confused
mass. Pieces of skulls and leg-bones lay among the
dust which had lately been shovelled up; and as 1
gathered a handful and gave them to the old woman,
she said, u This cannot be helped. I pick 'era up and
hide 'em when I see 'em and that's all can be done ;
people will bury here, and it's been buried over for
years, because you see, ma'am, it's the place of saints.
People are brought many miles to be put here ; the
priests from all parts have been buried here, and here
is the place to wake 'em," showing a place where the
coffin, or rather body, was placed in a fixture of cu-
riously wrought stone. The altars, though defaced,
were not demolished ; the basins cut out of the stones
for the holy water were still entire ; and though many
a deformity had been made by breaking off pieces, as
sacred relics, enough remains to show the traveller
what was the grandeur of the Romish church in Ireland's
early history.

The next evening I accompanied my kind Mrs.

W out of town, and felt when she gave me her

hand, and said , " Please God, I hope to see you again
before I die," that I was parting with a real friend.
I then returned to her sister's, who did all she could to
make me comfortable. She was a Catholic, and her
husband endeavored to induce me to become one also,
fearing I should lose my soul out of the true church ;
but his zeal was tempered with the greatest kindness.

When T was about leaving Thurles, Mrs. B

CHAP, vi.] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 113

said, u You should see Mount Mellary before leaving
Ireland." Inquiring what it might be, my curiosity
was awakened by what I heard, to see it, and I resolved
to take a car the next morning, and make my way
thither, a distance of more than fifty English miles.
I had hoped to stop at the Rock of Cashel, but was
obliged for the present to content myself by seeing its
lofty pinnacle. Perched upon the top of a rock, it has
stood the ravages of centuries, looking out upon the
world, and the city beneath its feet, which is now going
fast to decay. Cashel looked more deserted this day
than usual, as a rich brewer in the city, a brother of
Father Mathew had died, and the shops were closed in
honor of his funeral.

When travelling by coaches and cars, I had been so
much annoyed by the disgusting effluvia of tobacco,
that I dreaded a " next stage," the changing of horses
being the signal for a fresh lighting up. Seating my-
self upon the car at Cashel, my hap was to be stowed
behind a rustic who had reloaded his pipe, and began
puffing till my unlucky head was enveloped in a dense
fog, a favorable wind wafting it in that direction.
Knowing that the consumers of this commodity are not
fastidiously civil, 1 forbore to complain, until I became
sick. At length I ventured to say, " Kind sir, would
you do me the favor to turn your face a little ? Your
tobacco has made me sick." Instantly he took the
filthy machine from his mouth, and archly looking at
me, " May be yer ladyship would take a blast or two at
the pipe," resumed his puffing without changing his
position. I was cured of asking favors.

Passing on from Cashel, a Roman Catholic priest
seated himself upon the car, whom I found polite and in-
telligent. His first inquiries were concerning American
slavery Its principles and practices he abhored, and
he could not comprehend its existence in a republican
government. I blush for my country when, on every
car, and at every party and lodging-house, this ever-
la'sting blot on America's boasted history is presented
to my eyes. Even the illiterate laborer, who is lean-

114 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP, vi,

ing on his spade, and tells me of his eight-pence a
day, when I in pity exclaim, " How can you live ?
you could be better fed and paid in America," ho
often remarks, " Aw, you have slaves in America,
and are they better fed and clothed ?" My priest took
his leave, and his seat was occupied by a deaf old man
who was a sorry substitute ; but a few hours carried
us to Clonmel, a town neat in its appearance, contain-
ing about twenty thousand inhabitants, amongst whom
are many Quakers. Here some of the u White
Quakers," a small body of " Gome-outers," from the
Quakers, formerly resided, but they have removed to
Dublin. These people bitterly denounce others, but
take liberties themselves under pretence of walking in
the spirit, which by many would be considered quite
indecorous. The men wear white hats, coats and pan-
taloons of white woollen cloth, and shoes of undressed
leather ; the women likewise dress in white, to denote
purity of life. Seeing a laborer digging a ditch
under a wall, I asked him the price of his day's work.
"A shilling, ma'am." "This is better than in Tip-
perary, sir." " But we don't have this but a little part
of the year ; the Quakers are very hard upon us here,
ma'am ; giving us work but a little 'time, and if a poor
Irishman is found to be a little comfortable, they say,
4 he has been robbing us.' The English, too, are ex-
pecting a war, and they want us to enlist ; but a divil
of an Irishman will they get to fight their battles.
O'Connell is not out of prison ;" and stopping sud-
denly, leaning on his spade, u How kind America has
been to us ; we ought to be friends to her, and the Irish
do love her." He grew quite enthusiastic on America's
kindness and Britain's tyranny, dropped his spade,
climbed the wall where I was standing, and expatiated
on Ireland's woes and America's kindness till I was
obliged to say " good bye."

A new car and driver were now provided. These
drivers are a terrible annoyance, with their " Rent,
ma'am." " Rent ! for what ?" " For the driver,
ma'arn." u I will give you an order on Bianconi, sir,

CHAP, vi.] CO. OF WATERFORD. 115

I had been told that Bianconi paid his coachmen well,
and forbade their annoying the passengers, but after-
wards found that they receive from him but tenpence
or a shilling a day, out of which they must board them-
selves. I was sorry I spoke so to the driver, and hope
to learn better manners in future. I had now a solitary
road to pass, and no fellow passenger but a police offi-
cer sitting on the opposite side of the car. Ou/ route
lay through denies in the intricate windings of the
Knockrneledown mountains, and had my faith been
strong in giants, fairies, and hobgoblins, the dark re-
cesses and caves in these mountains would have afforded
ample food for imagination.

The sun came out from the dark pavilion in which
he had been hidden through the day, to take a last
look upon the eastern crags and lofty mountains he
was about leaving. The stillness of death reigned,
except when at long intervals the barking of some
surly cur told that a miserable hovel was near. Then
some barefooted mother, with a troop of besmeared
and tattered ^children, would present us with undeni-
able proofs of Ireland's woes and degradation. Not a
human voice was heard for many a long mile. Reach-
ing across the car, I asked the police officer the name of
the county. " I don't know, ma'am," was the reply,
though he was then probably within the precincts of his
own location, as he soon alighted from the car. The
last light of day left us as we emerged from these
romantic mountains, and entered the seaport town of
Dungarvan. We proceeded onwards, and were joined
by a company of pleasant young women, who, finding
that I was a stranger, procured for me lodgings when
we arrived at the town of Cappoquin. There was a
gentleman from Clonmel, who had a son in New York,
and who invited me to his house on my return, and
the evening passed pleasantly with two or three talka-
tive Irishmen, whose good nature, when in exercise, is
always a compensation for every inconvenience. I
was now in the region of romance, on the banks of the
Blackwater, and three miles from the famous Mount

116 CO. OF WATERFORD. [CHAP. vi.

Mellary. The following morning, in company with
two countrywomen, an old lady and her daughter, I
attempted to ascend the mountain. A dark deep ravine
lies at the foot, the silence of which is broken only by
the murmur of a little rill, which stealthily makes its
way to the river that runs by the town. We were
upon the ridge of the glen, picking blackberries, when
a company of men with carts were passing, one called
out, u Sure ye'd take a lift up the mountain ; the way
is long and tedious." A board from the back part of
cart was taken out, and the daughter was helped up
with u Mickey," and the mother and myself with
" Paddy." The aspiring steeple of the monastery
now rose in full view ; the cultivated garden, the ex-
tended lawns, and fields whose ripened corn had just-
been gathered by the hand of the reaper, were spread
on each hand, and in front of the chapel. We reached
the porter's lodge, some rods from the monastery,
where we descended from our cars. We saw a monk
approaching, in his gown and cowl, and hoped he might
be coming to meet us; but he passed in silence, not
casting a look upon the prohibited article, woman, and
entered the lodge. Reaching the monastery, we were
met by men and women, some walking, some riding
from the gate to depart, and a pleasant-looking monk
approached, and beckoned us to follow. Giving him
my card, he drew on his spectacles, and reading " New
York," his countenance lighted up, and he broke
silence, " Then you are from New York ; and how
long ? And have ye left friends after ye ? And did
ye come to see Ireland? repeating u America," as he
led us into the garden, which was beautifully laid out
as a place for ornament, and the bury ing-ground.
Twelve of their number are sleeping there, with a wood-
en cross at the head and foot of each. We were next
introduced into a long hall, where were wooden pegs
upon each side, bearing the robes used for the week
day, and over each the name of the owner. A narrow
passage led us a few steps lower into the chapel. This
is imposing, for, contrary to my expectations, it was

CHAP, vi.] CO. OF WATERFORD. 117

more grand than gorgeous. The richness and tasteful
finish of the decorations were beautiful. The lofty ceil-
ing, the pillars of imitation marble at each end of the
altar, and a large stained glass window behind it, which
threw over the whole a light peculiarly grateful to the
eye, had a happy effect. In the rear was the gallery
for the choir and organ ; the latter was a present from a
gentleman in Dublin, who is now one of the brother-
hood. It is an instrument of finished workmanship
and tone. We were next shown into a long corridor,
on the end of which is written u Silence." No monk
or visitor is here allowed to speak. We passed three
of these long walks in silence, and then the dining-room
was opened. Here were tables placed for a family of
ninety-seven, with a knife, fork, and spoon to each
person, a piece of coarse bread wrapped in a clean
cloth, and a tumbler for water by the side. No flesh,
fish, eggs, or butter is eaten by the monks ; and
from September till the twenty-fifth of March, they
take but one meal a day, except a collation of four
ounces of bread in the morning ; the other six months
they take two meals a day. We were next shown the
sleeping-room : this is on true philosophical principles
— a spacious, clean room, well ventilated, without a
carpet, with a slight partition between each bed,
leaving room for the free ingress of air, and a green
worsted curtain before each door, elevated some inches
from the floor. The beds are narrow, and made of
straw, with a coarse covering. We were next seated in
the guest's room, when a monk entered, to whom our
guide introduced me as an American, and a friend to
the Irish. He warmly welcomed me to the country,
and set upon a table bread, butter, and wine. Learn-
ing that I took no butter, u What shall we get for you,
then?" said our guide, u you are worse than ourselves.
Why should you live so ?" Explaining rny reasons,
u Very good," was the answer. I assured them that I
should make a good dinner on bread and an apple,
which the kind lady had given me, and they left the
room. The bread was made of what is called in Eng-
land secoiid flour, the bran taken off, and the corn

118 CO. OF WATERFORD. [CHAP. vi.

ground coarsely ; it was brown and very sweet, and my
companions testified to the good quality of the butter ;
both were made by the hands of a monk.

When we had been left a suitable time to finish our
repast, the guide returned, presenting a book to register
our names. We presented him with a piece of money,
which we saw written over the door was requested to
be given to any in attendance ; he said to each of us,
u Maybe you cannot consistently spare this ; if so,
we do not wish it." We assured him we were more
than compensated. He then said, " walk down," and
showing us to a little room at the foot of the stairs,
without asking us to sit, he introduced me to an Ame-
rican, inquiring, " Did you leave your native land
alone to seek out the poor in Ireland r" Then turning
to a brother, he said in an under tone, u This is doing
as Christ did. And," said he, addressing himself to
me, " what, after all, do you think of Ireland ? It is
true she is a little island, but she has made a great
noise in the world." She is, and has always been, poor
in spirit, and struggling with poverty, and Christ has
said the kingdom of heaven belongs to such. The
being " poor in spirit" did not seem quite to the point,
but leaving no time for argument, without apology,
one after another presented the hand, saying, u good
morrow," and retired, The guide took us out at the
door, thanked us for coming, wished me a safe journey,
showed us a shorter route over the mountain, and said,
"Farewell."

As we looked back, and saw what a barren waste had
been converted into a fruitful field by the hand of un-
tiring industry, I felt an earnest desire to learn the his-
tory of this Herculean task ; and at evening a member
of the family where I lodged, who had been conversant
with its history from the beginning, gave me the desired
information.

These monks had been united with the brotherhood
at La Trappe, in France, but had been banished thence.
Those who were Irishmen returned to Ireland, in
number about sixty, with but three shillings as all
their earthly possessions. Some thirty pounds were

CHAP. vi. J CO. OF WATERPORD. 119

collected, and sent to their relief the evening after their
landing, and they soon fixed their eyes on this barren
spot as the place for a future residence. Lord Kane,
the owner of the mountain, offered six hundred acres,
for a shilling a year per acre for twenty-one years ;
then, for half-a-crown an acre for ninety-nine years ;
and the lease to be renewed at the end of that term.
This being settled, the bounds were laid out, and the
neighboring priests invited their people to take spade
and mattock, pick and shovel, and assist in making the
wall. The day was appointed, the people assembled
in crowds, each with his instrument of husbandry, and
formed a procession at Cappoquin, with the monks at
their head, carrying a cross. A band of music escorted
them up the mountain, and the provisions and imple-
ments of cookery were carried on carts, the women
following to cook the provisions. Thus commenced
the wall, and so continued daily, the band going up at
night to escort them down, and ascending with them
in the mountain. The mountain was then a rocky,
sterile, unpromising spot, covered with heath, and, to
any but the eyes of a monk, wholly impervious to cul-
tivation. They built a temporary shelter when the
wall was finished, and remained there, working with
their own hands, till a fruitful harvest gladdened their
toil, and the u desert rejoiced and blossomed as the
rose."

In 1833, the corner-stone of the grand chapel was
laid Thousands from all parts of Ireland collected.
The monks, dressed in their robes, performed high mass
before a temporary altar, erected under a tent, and a
multitude of seventy thousand united in the celebration.
A sermon was preached by the bishop, and the. corner-
stone was laid. Under this stone were placed the dif-
ferent coins, from the sovereign to the farthing. On it
was inscribed : —

" Aug. 20th, 1838. Pope Pius VII., Sir Richard Kane, Baronet,
and Lady Kane, patrons. Right Rev. Dr. Abraham, Roman Ca-
tholic Bishop of the Diocese of Waterford, the layer of the founda-
tion-stone. Very Rev. Dr. M. V. Ryan, Prior of Mount Mellarv
Abbev.

120 CO. OF WATERFORP. [CHAP. vi.

The latter being the first abbot in Ireland since the
Reformation. The foundation being laid, the work
went on, till what now meets the wondering eye was
completed. Not one of Eve's daughters has contami-
nated its purity, for the work is wholly performed by
the monks, and the housekeeping does honor to the
establishment ; the cleanliness and the arrangements
coinciding with those of the Shakers of America.

They retire a quarter before eight, and rise at two,
when the bell of the chapel is rung, and they perform
private devotion till six ; then mass is performed in
the chapel, and each goes to his respective labor. Per-
fect silence is enjoined for certain hours of the day,
when they make known their wants by signs. They
have a mechanic's shop where tailors, cabinet-makers,
saddlers, shoe-makers, carpenters, weavers, &c., per-
form their work ; and likewise a printing-press. All
the labor is performed by the monks. They have
twenty cows, a good stock of horses, and sheep and
fowls of all kinds ; and though they eat no flesh them-
selves, they present it in all its varieties to those who
visit them. So economical are they of time, that dur-
ing meals, one stands in an elevated pulpit, reading
and lecturing, that no time may be lost in idle words at
table.

The following Sabbath I had appointed to visit and
read to an old woman upon the mountain, and we heard
a sermon in the chapel. The sight of nearly a hundred
monks, dressed in priestly robes, with all the accompa-
niments of grandeur, cannot fail deeply to impress
a credulous people. When the deep-toned organ was
swelling upon my ear, when the incense was ascending,
and the people bowing to the floor, a kind of awe fell
upon me, as I thought of the days of the church's former
greatness, and what she is still destined to be and to
do. The subject of the sermon was that of the guests
at the wedding taking the highest seat, and the preacher
expatiated beautifully and sciipturally upon the sin of
pride, referring to Lucifer, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar,
and Herod. He dwelt on the depravity of man, and

CHAP, vii.] CO. OF WATERFORD. 121

his liability to fall, saying lie had a dead soul in a liv-
ing body, exhorted them to be faithful in the penance
of confession, to ask Jesus to forgive them, and the
Blessed Virgin to pray for them. He was in look,
manner, and eloquence, one of the most finished speci-
mens of public speakers I had ever heard. His dress
was becoming, and his figure beautiful. The simple
unostentatious pulpit was a narrow corridor, extending
from side to side of the chapel, parallel with the gallery,
with a railing upon each side, and not a seat of any
kind to rest upon.

My young and intelligent guide, who was a Catholic,
turned into a part of the monastery to light his pipe,
and left me to make my way down the mountain alone.

CHAPTER VII.

The spirit of Caste injurious in Ireland — Journey to Youghal — the Blessed Well
of St. Dagan— Cabin Hospitality— Uncourteous Reception by Sir Richard Mus-
grave — Rebuff from a "great, good man" — Rejoicings at Lismore for O'Con-
nell's Liberation— A Disaster— Brutality of an Inn-keeper's Son— Dungaryan
— Two silent Quakeresses — Thoughts on Irish Hospitality — Unsuccessful Ap-
plication to Bianconi — Strong National Peculiarities of the Irish — Unpopulari-
ty of Stepmothers— St. Patrick's Well— A Poor Old Woman— A Baptist Min-
ister—Happy Molly.

OF all the miseries entailed upon poor Ireland, that of
" caste" is not the least, and in some circumstances you
may as well be a beggar at once, if not a drop of high
blood can be found in your veins, or if some title be not
appended to your name.

Report had said that England was taking the liberty
to break the seals of letters going from Ireland to
America, and to retain such as did not suit her views
of matters relative to the country. I had been in Ire-
land more than three months, had paid postage on a
package of letters, but had received no answer, and was
in much perplexity on account of it. When about leav-
ing Cappoquin, I was advised by the good man of the
6

122 CO. OF WATERFORD. [CHAP. VH.

house where I lodged, to call on Sir Richard Musgrave,
who lived on his estate a mile and a half distant, and
would give me information respecting the transmission
of letters ; adding, " He is condescending in manner,
peculiarly kind of heart, a true friend of Ireland and
O'Connell, and delights in doing good to Catholics,
though himself a Protestant." All these qualifications
were certainly something, and I reluctantly consented
to call at his house. I found that he was not at his
country residence, but was spending a few weeks on
the sea-shore, at Whiting-Bay, eighteen miles distant.
A steamer was about to start for Youghal, down the
Blackwater, and would take me fifteen miles on my
way. The morning was a little dull, but the sun at
ten o'clock broke through the clouds, and lighted up
such a landscape as is impossible for me to describe,
for Blackwater scenery is Blackwater scenery, and
nothing else. It was not a cloudless state of mind that
caused this bright vision of things, for I was going
against my own inclination ; but the reality so broke
upon me at every new winding, that, in spite of myself,
I must admire if not enjoy. A preceding rain had
given a lively tint to tree and meadow, and nature ap-
peared as in the freshness of a May morning, though
September was well advanced, and the yellow hue, con-
trasted with the more sombre foliage of tree and haw-
thorn with which meadow and water were fringed,
heightened the beauty of the scene. The cows and
sheep were grazing upon hill and dale, and the song of
the happy bird lent its notes of harmony. If for a no-
ment the prospect was confined by a short turn in the
river, the next a ,broad vista opened which displayed
extended towns, rising cultivated hills, a stately man-
sion perched upon some shelving rock, and now and
then a mutilated castle or abbey. Five ruined castles
meet the eye in sailing fifteen miles upon this river,
and though they speak loudly of the uncertainty of all
human greatness and human hopes, yet they are a kind
of pleasing proud memento to the heart of every Irish-
man, that his now oppressed country had once her men

CHAP, vii.] CO. OF WATERFORD. 123

of cultivated tastes as well as of warlike feats. When
passing through the vale of Ovoca, I thought that na-
ture could do no more than she had there done ; Ibut
on the banks of the Blackwater she showed me that a
bolder stroke of her pencil had been reserved for this
outline. Let the traveller gaze upon the picture, and
tell us, if he can, what is wanting.

At last the town of Youghal, with her noble bridge,
met the eye. The drawbridge was raised for the
steamer to pass, and we saw the houses extending along
the sea-shore, on the vicinity of a hill, commanding a
noble prospect of the sea. The busy population in pur-
suit of gain by their bartering and bantering, told us
that self here was an important item, though not a
beggar put out her hand, invoking " the blessing of the
Virgin" for your penny. A ferry-boat put me safely
on the other side, leaving me a three miles walk, partly
upon the beach, but mostly inland, and thus giving an
opportunity of seeing a peasantry who speak English
only when compelled by necessity. Making inquiry
from cabin to cabin, not one bawled out, " Go along to
such a place, and inquire ;" but each one left her work,
sometimes accompanied by two dogs and thrice the
number of pigs, and led me a distance on the way, with
a kind "God bless ye," at parting. A troop of boys
now came galloping at full speed, intent, one might
suppose, on sport or niischief. But each had a book
under his arm or in his laand, and I saw they were re-
turning from school, and saluting them kindly, they
gathered around me, listened to the story of schools in
America, and earnestly asked such questions as to them
seemed important. At our parting, each was emulous
to direct me on my way, lest at the " cross-road" I should
mistake. " Now, ma'am, don't you take the left ;" " nor
don't ye go straight on," said a second, " but turn to
the right," &c. And when, like so many young deer,
they bounded away, I blessed God that the dawn of edu-
cation was breaking upon Ireland, and that the genera-
tion jiow rising shall feel its genial ray, and by her

124 CO. OP WATERFORD. [CHAP. vn.

power have the independence to assert their country's
heaven-born rights.

But the great man was not yet reached, and I was
weary with walking. A little girl with a heavy bur-
den on her back, said, " And is it Sir Musgrave, ma'am,
ye would see ? you should go up that road, ma'am, and
the way is much shorter." That road had long since
been passed, but the girl added, " Ye are on the road
to the Blessed Well." " Blessed Well ! what is that ?"
" I don't know, ma'am, only people goes there to pray."
This reconciled me a little to the mistake of the path ;
and walking on, a clump of trees was pointed out as the
sacred place. There was something superstitiously
pleasant in the appearance and associations about this
well. It was eighteen hundred years ago since Jesus,
" weary with his journey, sat down on the well," and
the woman of Samaria came out to draw water. Here
was a spot where thousands had knelt, and drank, and
gone away as dark as they came ; ignorantly supposing
that some saint had sanctified its waters. As I was
musing, a young damsel like Rebecca of old, with
a large brown pitcher, " came hither to draw." She
was " fair to look upon." I saluted her, she answered
pleasantly in Irish, and after filling her pitcher walked
away. Never did that living water of which Jesus told
the woman of Samaria look more precious than now ;
never had I more ardently desired to tell a benighted
traveller " the way, the truth, and the life ;" but I could
not speak her language, neither could I, like Jesus, have
told her " all that ever she did." How many of these
sincere devotees who come here to drink, have ever
tasted of the well of salvation, God alone must decide.

A large stone, with a wooden cross fixed in it, stands
at the head of this well, and a beautiful tree waves
over the whole. St. Dagan, we are told, blessed this
water some hundred years ago ; and so efficacious has
it been, that cripples, who came on crutches, have gone
away leaping and praising St. Dagan, and the blind
have been made to see. So infatuated have been its de-

CHAP, vii.j CO. OP WATERFORD. 125

votees, that the bishop has thought it expedient to
prohibit its resort, as being a place where miracles are
no more to be expected. So unmindful was I of its
healing virtues, that I actually turned away without
tasting its waters. Fearing I had gone astray, I made
my way to a cabin door through mud and filth ; here a
woman pointed me to the house of the great man, and
added, " May-be ye are wairy, and would like to sit
down a bit." I gladly accepted the invitation, and
followed my guide into the small cabin. Here were
two men sitting upon a table in a corner, an old man
smoking, and a wretched-looking woman, who like me
was weary with her journey, and had " turned in
hither," and was sitting upon the ground. In the cen-
tre of the room stood the dinner table, with the re-
mains of the potatoes on which the family had been
dining. A tub of potato-skins and water stood near
the table, from which two huge matronly swine, and
eleven young sucklings, were eating their dinner, and
I, in return for the civility shown me, could do no less
than extol the beauty of the little bonnels, and the
fine bulk of the mother. The mistress took a wooden
bowl, mashed a few fine potatoes into it with her hands,
and, adding milk, called a couple of more favored
ones, and fed them from it. Upon a cupboard stood a
plate of tempting well-cooked potatoes, and I asked
leave to take one. This was the signal for a fresh ef-
fusion of kindness, and the good woman left her pets
to their own guidance, and selected with her hands one
one of the finest, divested it of its coat with her nails, and
handed it to me. I was caught in my own trap, and
was obliged to surrender ; and before the first was mas-
ticated, a second was in readiness, and so on, till I was
positively obliged to refuse the fourth, much to the
grief of the good woman, who was " in dread" lest I
should go away hungry.

" Sir Richard," said the old man, putting his pipe in
his pocket, " will sartainly consider your case. He is
a good man, and his wife is a kind woman." And now,
with three fine potatoes in my stomach, and thrice the

126 CO. OF WATERFORD. [CHAP. vn.

number of blessings on my head, I departed to the
a great man's" abode. The sea was dashing against
the gravelly beach at the front of the dwelling ; an air
of comfort was shed around ; and when the porter re-
sponded to my knock, and had gone to present my card,
I looked about the hall, and seeing no false appendages
of greatness, and being soon invited into the parlor by
the gentleman himself, I felt as much at ease as when
eating my potatoes in the cabin. I introduced myself,
and the object of my errand, while he peered at me
over his spectacles, and seemed to listen with attention.
He read my letter of introduction, and returned it
without note or comment. I stated the exigencies of
my case, as a stranger in a strange land, and asked if
he could give any information as to whether the Eng-
lish government had really taken the liberty to open
and retain letters. He looked silently upon me, with a
gaze , which seemed to say, " 1 wish this insignificant
woman could finish her story, and let me return to my
lunch." " I may be keeping you from dinner, sir." •" I
was taking lunch, madam ; my dinner hour is five."
" Do you know, sir, and will you tell me, whether you
think this report true or false ?" No answer : he took
out his watch ; I understood the signal, and rose to
depart. " I can give you no advice on this subject."
As I was going into the hall he said, u May be you
would take something to eat." " I am not hungry, sir,"
replied I. My heart rejected this coldly proffered
bread. Then did the cabin woman's potato look doubly
valuable, and I blessed God that he had left some poor
in the world, that every, vestige of humanity and kind
feeling might not be swept from the earth. The heart
of a stranger was emphatically mine. I had travelled
a distance of twenty miles for the privilege of being
treated with the coldest indifference by a titled gentle-
man. Yet I was not sorry. I at least learned some-
thing. This man was celebrated for his urbanity of
manners and kindness of heart ; the well intentioned
friends who advised me to apply to him were certain
that he would solve my difficulties ; and I had gone

CHAP. VIL] CO. OF WATERFORD. 127

more in complaisance to their good feelings, than from
a favorable opinion of the undertaking on my part. I
had visited Ireland to see the poor, to learn its sian-
ners and customs, and how they would treat American
strangers in any and every condition. I was placed in
peculiar circumstances, and a few kind words, if they
would not have helped me out of my dilemma, would
have cost him but little, and have been grateful to me.
But not even a generous look could be gained, and I
hoped my friends would see that this boasting of the
benevolence of great men is often but boasting, and
whoever follows them to get good, will generally find
himself in pursuit of an ignis fatuus, which, perchance
may land him in a quagmire.

The sail back upon the enchanting Blackwater was
if possible more pleasant than in the morning. The
setting sun cast a mellow light on tower, castle, ivied
abbey, and tree ; and the vesper song of the bird, seek-
ing its shelter for the night, had a soothing effect upon
my mind after my zig-zag pursuit of Irish aristoc-
racy.

To atone for yesterday's adventure, the good people
of the lodging-house advised a ramble to Lismore, as
castles, bridges, and churches, besides " Lord Devon-
shire" himself, were all there. A plain-looking man
offered his services as my guide, for Lismore was on
his route home, and he knew every nook and corner
" right well," and would show me all with the greatest
pleasure. But we must take a circuitous road, and
call on another " great and good man," who could
not give an unkind look, for he was " made up of good-
ness." In vain I pleaded my excuses ; my guide was
a familiar acquaintance of the gentleman's, and could
remove all impediments to an introduction, and I was
obliged to yield. We went over gravelled walks,
through rich lawns, and sheltered pathways, till behind
a high wall we saw the numerous chimneys of this
u great and good man." He was a Scotchman and a
Presbyterian. A laborer on the top of the wall called
out, " The master is at dinner, and cannot be seen."

128 CO. OF WATERFORD. [CHAP. vn.

A nurse with a sweet infant in her arms was sitting
•upon a stile, and half an hour was beguiled in listen-
ing to the good qualities of both master and mistress,
till the kind girl, eager to acquaint the hospitable
woman that an American lady was without, hastened
in, and I saw her no more. u The master is coming,"
said my guide, u and I will go and tell him who you
are." He did so, and I was a mile on my way to Lis-
more, when he overtook me, muttering that the man had
returned from giving orders to his men, and they went
to. the stile, and no American was there. I had stop-
ped a full half hour for the hospitable mistress, who
knew I was in waiting, and then went away. Not a
cabin in all Ireland would have treated a stranger
thus.

But leaving the " good and great man," let us walk
to the pleasant town of Lismore.

When my guide had conducted me to the town, and
showed me into the celebrated church, which in the
days of the never-forgotten Cromwell was defaced,
and taken possession of by the Protestants, he abruptly
took leave, saying, u I hove showed ye all I can." I
stood alone in the midst of that venerable pile, looking
at its pictures and stained glass windows, through
which the setting sun shed a mellow light, throwing
upon its walls a softened sadness, which, as the flicker-
ing rays died away, seemed to say, " The glory of Erin
is departed."

The town was in high glee, for O'Connell was libe-
rated. One of the newspaper editors who had been
imprisoned with him was there/aad bonfires blazed in
various places, their smoke giving to the tasteful little
town the appearance of a reeking furnace. I hastened
to the bridge, to look at the castle of the Duke of De-
vonshire. It is situated upon an elevated site, overlook-
ing the romantic Blackwater.

Three miles and a half were before me, and night
was gathering around. So absorbed was I in looking
at^ the never-tiring beauties of the scenery, and so
thick were the hedge-rows with tempting blackberries,

CHAP, vii.] CO. OP WATERFORD. 129

that by the time the curtain of night had descended I
found I had lost my spectacles ! This was the ultimatum
of all the vexations of yesterday's chase after a " sir,"
and to-day's hunt after a u great and good man."
These spectacles were of superior excellence, were very
expensive, and had been selected in New York as
peculiarly suited for travelling. They brought every
distant mountain and castle in bold relief before my
eye, when riding in a car or coach. Now I found it
was truly the "little foxes that spoil the vines." I
had become so enchanted with the almost supernatural
beauties of Ireland, that no troubles could sit long on
my heart while looking upon them ; but now this con-
solation was gone. I sat down upon a stone to think
what 1 should do next. I was in a thick wood, three
miles from Cappoquin. The evening was still ; the
noise of joy and gladness fell upon my ear from the
town, and I bent my steps towards it. The light from
bonfires and barrels of blazing tar, drawn by noisy
boys, was glimmering through the trees. Ireland was
rejoicing that O'Connell was free. " It's many a long
day that we have been lookin' for that same to do
somethin' for us, but not ahap'orth of good has come to
a cratur of us yet. We're aitin the pratee to-day, and
not a divil of us has got off the rag since he begun his
discoorse," said a peasant woman near me, not scru-
pulously tidy in her apron or cap. Making my way
thorugh the crowd, I reached the whiskey lodging-house.
A hearty greeting from the good-humored daughter,
who was attending at the bar, was sullenly responded
to by, u I've lost my spectacles." " And you've seen
the good man, and the beautiful church of Lismore."
" I've seen no good man." u Oh, the cratur's weary !
But the. priest'll find the spectacles, for he'll cry
7em from the altar next Sunday." I retired amid the
din of rejoicing, and have heard nothing from priest or
spectacles since.

Wednesday, September 17th. — I left my lodgings be-
fore five in the morning for Kilkenny. It was very
cold for the season. I knocked at the door of the hotel,
6*

130 CO. OF WATERFORD. [CHAP. vn.

where I was told the preceding day that 1 must be at
that hour, and was answered by a man who had rushed
from his bed to the door half clad, with hair erect,
demanding in surly tone who was there, and what was
wanted. u The car, sir," " The car don't come till
half after five." " I'll step in if you please, sir, and
wait." u You won't. Do you think I'll set up for you
to come in ?" " What shall I do, sir ?" " Go back
where you came from." " The door is locked, and the
servants in bed, and I could not get in." " Then stay
out of doors," he shouted, and shut the door rudely
upon me.

I did stay out of doors, and it was indeed a cold
berth. I was obliged to keep walking, for no smoke
yet ascended from cottage or cabin. Upon a distant
green hillock a little smoke was slowly winding up :
going to it, I found it was a stump smouldering out its
last dying embers for the honor of O'Connell. Seat-
ing myself beside it upon my carpet bag, and stirring it
with my parasol, I begged it to give one cheer more for
the long life of him for whom it had been blazing, and
the warmth of one who was well nigh freezing. A
ragged laborer approached to light his pipe. u And
sure what brings ye here so airly, lady ?"

" The civility of your innkeeper, sir."

" The innkeeper, ma'am, is a woman of dacent man-
ners, and wouldn't trait ye so ; it was the vagabond of
a son she keeps about her."

" And what has this decent woman been doing these
twenty years, that she has not taught this vagabond son
some of her good manners ?"

" Faith, that I can't tell, and by your tongue ye
must be a stranger in the country."

I had only time to say that I was from America, when
the horn of the carman summoned me from the com-
pany that had gathered around, one of whom called
after me, " And do you think we will have the repale ?",,

" I could wish that the next stump by which you
light your pipe might be kindled to celebrate the jubi-
lee of your freedom."

CHAP. VIL] CO. OP WATERFORD. 131

It was affecting to see Low the hearts of these poor
ill-paid laborers were everywhere intent on that one
object, repeal. They feel daily more and more the
iron hand that crushes them ; and were it not that
Father Mathew has sobered them, and O'Connell is
enjoining " peace, peace," their forbearance would
cease.

The sun was now rising in a clear sky. Never had
I been so willing to leave a spot in all Ireland, but I
grudged them my spectacles. I had scarcely found a
comfort in Cappoquin. The father, son, and daughter
where I lodged were employed in repairing the house,
and selling ardent spirits ; and though occasionally a
kind wish was bestowed, I was left to carry out this
kind wish as well as I could. But this -unlucky visit
was not a fair specimen of my tour through Ireland ;
and, even here, another time might have been quite the
reverse.

I might call on Sir Richard with a fresher trimming
on my bonnet, and receive a kind answer to my inqui-
ries. The door of the estated gentleman might be
opened if the hour were more favorable. I might
stop at the same house when it was undergoing no
repair, when the carpets were laid down (for they told
me they had carpets), and I might call at the door of
the innkeeper when the young boor had risen from his
lair, when his hair was combed and his face shaven,
and he might give me a complacent " walk in," and a
seat by the fire till the car should arrive. These evils
I determined should not annoy me ; but oh, my specta-
cles ! I could not enjoy the scenery without them, and
was compelled to see the country through the descrip-
tions of the carman, who was my only fellow-traveller,
and somewhat intelligent.

At seven we reached the flourishing sea-port of
Dungarvan ; flourishing it might be, at least, if such a
harbor were anywhere but in poor Ireland. The
houses are built with considerable regard to taste,
and the population had the appearance of more com-
fort than in many towns of Ireland ; but the same

132 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vn.

complaint of poor price for labor, and the same inquiry,
" Do ye think we shall get the repale ?" saluted me from
all to whom I spoke.

Here two Quakeresses joined the car, and rode to
Clonmel, and certainly they were proofs that woman
is sometimes silent, for from nine till three they sat,
and scarcely uttered a word. I made a few ineffectual
efforts to talk a little about the country, but gave it up
as hopeless. The Quakers are a worthy people, but
when I hear of the poor laborers reaping down their
fields for a shilling a day, I cannot but say, " One thing
thou lackest. "

The gentleman who had invited me to visit him at
Cappoquin was at the car when we arrived there, and
showed me into the house, where much apparent kind-
ness was manifested. And here let me remark that
the Irish peasantry cannot be surpassed in hospitality ;
but in proportion as independence and rank are attain-
ed, this hospitality does not always meet the stranger
with the same warmth and sincerity. It seems to say,
" We know that the Irish people are proverbial for their
hospitality, and I must keep up the credit of my coun-
try ; but had you not come to my house, I should not
have troubled myself about you." I always managed
well for myself in doubtful cases, by saying that I had
met with such unbounded kindness among the poor in
Ireland, that I could not doubt the national reputatioto
for hospitality was well merited ; and when I was in-
vited to partake of it, I would not insult the Irish char-
acter by any suspicion of sincerity on their part. I was
advised to avail myself of Bianconi's offer to all foreign-
ers, to travel upon his cars free. This Italian, who
some twenty years before came into Ireland and went
about with a box selling trinkets, had by dint of indus-
try and good management become rich. When he com-
menced his cars, he travelled for weeks without a pas-
senger ; but perseverance conquered, and he now owns
thirteen hundred horses, and cars in proportion, and is
at the head of Ireland in this department. He was at
this time mayor of the town of Cloninel. I felt a deli-

CHAP. vii.J CO. OP TIPPERARY. 133

cacy in making my appeal, but yielded to the urgent
entreaty of the friend who gave so many assurances of
success from this best of men. My sensitiveness on the
subject of great and good men had become so acute,
that if left to myself I should have preferred staying
upon the lower step. The request was made through
the clerk of the mayor, my letter of introduction to a
friend of Bianconi's being unsealed ; the result was a
failure, Bianconi refused ; and the clerk told me frankly,
that if I had come to see the poor of Ireland, I had corne
on a very foolish errand. He had left me waiting till
the car had left, and I had not money to take me to Ur-
lingford unless I went that night.

Unhesitatingly I turned to the gentleman who urged
me to this step, and threw myself upon his protection
until the next car should start. My stay was continued
three days, till I had seen outwardly the most interest-
ing part of Clonmel. Passing one evening through the
churchyard, I saw the door of the church open, and was
attracted by the voice of a child above ; following the
sound, it led me to a large upper chamber, where sat a
man reading to a tidy looking woman, amusing herself
with a child. This man was sexton of the church, and
though a Protestant, did not seem so well suited with
all the arrangements of that body as most of them were.
The weekly meetings were kept up, he said, but often
only three attended.

" And how do your Catholic brethren and you agree?"
" Very well," said the woman ; u we find them quite
obligin', and I must acknowledge they are a more hum-
ble people than the Protestants."

This acknowledgment, though a merited one so far as
I had seen, I did not expect from that source. I had
seen rich Catholics and rich Protestants, and seen them
both similarly circumstanced, but acting quite differently
when any manifestations of either pride or benevolence
were concerned.

The characteristics of an Irishman are so marked,
that whether you find him living on a bog or in a
domain, in a cabin or in a castle, you know he is an

134 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vn.

Irishman still. His likes and dislikes, his love and ha-
tred, seem regulated by a national standard. One of
their deeply infixed characteristics is, hatred to step-
mothers. The poor victim might as well enter her name
on the black roll, and make a league to become a witch
at once, as to undertake this crusade ; for indulgent or
severe, idle or industrious, amiable or unamiable, she is
a stepmother still.

In this family, one of these victims presided, or ra-
ther tarried ; and the very atmosphere of the house
seemed to whisper stepmother, wherever a child appear-
ed. A daughter of seventeen offered to accompany me
in the evening to the well of St. Patrick, two miles from
town, but this hopeful girl was not out of bed till eleven
in the morning, and when the time arrived she could
not accompany me, u she had no leisure but on the
Sabbath." The stepmother looked significantly, and
I inquired if her daughter had any business which was
pressing ?

u She lies in bed, as you see, taking her breakfast
after the family alone, and sits till dinner time ; she has

nothing to do, but I mustn't I'm a stepmother,"

giving another significant look.

I went alone to the St. Patrick's well, and was di-
rected as many different ways as I found Paddys to
point me. At length two fine boys left their sport, and
conducted me back over a wall, and showed me the
winding path through shady trees, down a declivity to
the dark solitude where the sacred well was sparkling.
Soft and pure was this water, like most that I found
throughout Ireland.

Two aqueducts conduct it underground a little dis-
tance ; it then forms a rill. A stone cross stands near
for the benefit of pilgrims, and a decayed church whoso
mutilated altar, with its rude inscription, carried you
back for centuries, to the time when the Irish Roman
Catholic Church was in her glory.

Everything about this frequented spot is calculated
to fill the mind with a chastened if not religious awe.
The dark wood behind the old stone church, the rip-

CHAP. TIL] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 135

pling of the little brook, tlie ancient stone cross, the
seclusion of the spot chosen for a place of worship, the
lateness of the hour, my distance from the land of my
fathers, and the thought that this is the green spot in
the ocean, where have figured and still live a people
unlike all others, filled my mind with painful, pleasant,
and romantic ideas. But I must now leave this sacred
dell, and though neither snake or lizard could coil about
my feet, yet it was sunset ; and ascending the serpen-
tine path, I reluctantly left the enchanting spot.

The first object I beheld at the foot of a hill when I
had gained the road, was an old woman with a sack of
potatoes on her back, suspended by a rope across her
forehead. The whiteness of her hair, the deep wrinkles
of her face, the sadness of her countenance, and the
feebleness with which she tottered when the burden in-
clined to slide from her back, so affected me, that never
had the miseries of Ireland stood before me in so broad
an outline as now.

" You are old, madam, to be carrying such a heavy
burden up a hill like this,"

" Ould and wairy, ma'am, be sure ; and it's many a
long day the good God has been puttin' this on me. I
must keep a little cabin over my head to shelter a sick
gal, who has this six years been on my hands, and
God Almighty don't bring her yet."

" And have you any more children ?"

"I have three abroad, I don't know where. They
forget their ould mother, and never write to me. I
raired six of them after the father died. Two are
married in Ireland, but they keep away ; I s'pose they
are afeared the sick one would want something if they
should come. I kept 'em all to school, till, like the
birds, as soon as they could fly, they left the nest."

" And do you have any bread ?"

" Not a hap'orth, ma'am, but potatoes ; sometimes**
the girl, when she bleeds at the lungs, says she can't
swallow 'em ; and when I get a hap'orth, it's a sup of
milk, a candle, and a bit of turf, and not afarthin' can
I spare for her. Sometimes she says, ' If I could smell

130 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vn.

a little tay, how it would revive me,* but I can't, no, I
can't git her a drop. I never have begged, ma* am, in
all the long days of distress I have ever had." " Well,
madam, your days on earth are well nigh finished, and
you are nearly home." " Yes, I am near my home,
but it's the heart, ma'am, it's the heart, after all ; the
prayers don't do without the heart. But the mighty
God have mercy on a poor cratur like me, it's all I can
I say." She stopped to adjust her pack, and I saw her
1 no more. The reality of this picture of patient suffering
needed no aid of the imagination to make it as perfect
a one as I had seen. But in every place I go, woman is
made a beast of burden ; and where this is allowed, tmd
men are not paid for their toil, no legislation can ele-
\ vate a people.

"*T"turned aside into a little chapel, and heard a Bap-
tist minister preach a sermon to five auditors, on the
righteous dealings of God. I breakfasted with him in
the morning ; a loaf of brown bread, butter, tea, and
an egg, formed his repast. This simple breakfast,
which may everywhere be found on the tables of the
gentry, is quite a rebuke on American extravagance.
And hard as is the fate of the laboring man, I think
he is greatly indebted to the potato for his flow of
spirits and health of body.

This clergyman had a church of only twelve, but in
a town of Quakers, Roman Catholics, and Protestants
of the Established Church, who had occupied the field
long before him. Nothing, he said, but love of his peo-
ple kept him from going to America ; adding, " My
country cannot long endure the miseries she now suf-
fers; some change must soon take place."

The next day I was to leave for Urlingford, and the
lady of the house where I stopped said, " You must
see an old woman we have in our cellar ; she's the won-
der of us all. She sleeps on a handful of straw upon
some narrow boards, a few inches' from the floor, with-
out pillow, or any covering, but a thin piece of a
blanket, and the clothes she wears through the day.
She goes to mass at five in the morning, with a sauce-

CHAP, vii.j CO. OP TIPPERARY. 137

pan, and fills it with holy water, which she offers to
every friend she meets, telling them it will ensure good
luck through the day, and then sprinkles it about her
room.'' At this moment, Molly, unobserved, stole soft-
ly upon us. When I met her laughing eye, and still
more laughing face, I could not refrain from laughing
too. Her cheeks were, red, as though the bloom of
sixteen rested upon them ; her hair was white, yet her
countenance was full of vivacity. She looked the
" American lady" full in the face, and pressing my
hand, said, a Welcome, welcome ; good luck, good luck
to ye, mavourneen. Come into my place, and see how
comfortable I am fixed." We followed to Happy Mol-
ly's cellar ; five or six stone steps led us into a dark en-
closure, with a stone floor, which contained all that
Happy Molly said she needed.

" Where do you sleep, Molly ?" Taking me by the
arm, she pointed to the corner, behind the fire-place,
" Here ! here ! and look, here is my blanket" (which
was but a thin piece of flannel) " and here, you see, is
an old petticoat, which the woman where I stopped
pulled out of my box, and tore it in pieces, ma'am, be-
cause I couldn't pay two pennies for my rent ; and then,
ye see, ma'am, I came here, and praise God they be so
kind ; oh, I couldn't tell ye how kind."

" Where's your pillow, Molly ?" " Oh ! I want no
pillow, ma'am, and I sleep so warm."

" And where are your children, Molly ?" " Some of
them gone to God, and some of them gone abroad, I
dont't know where ; I never sees them. They forgets
their ould mother. I nursed six, and one for a lady in
Dublin. I never gave them any milk from the cow. '

" Had you a cow, Molly ?" " A cow, and four too,
and a good husband."

u And you are happy now, Molly ?" " And why
shouldn't I be ? I have good friends, and enough to
eat, a comfortable room, and good bed."

" Where do you get your food ?" " Oh, up and
down, ma'am."

She did not beg, but all who knew her, when

138 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vui.

they saw her, would ask, " Well, Molly, have you
had anything to-day ?"• If not, a bit was given her.
She is very cleanly, and always healthy. VVhen I was
leaving, I stepped down to say good-bye. She was
sewing on a bench at the foot of the stone steps, and
when she found I was going, she seized my hand, and
kissed it, saying, " Good luck, good luck, American
lady, the good God will let us meet in heaven."

God surely " tempers the wind to the shorn lamb"
in Ireland. Such unheard-of sufferings as poor Erin
has endured have drawn out all kinds of character,
except the very worst.

CHAPTER VIII.

Nun nery at Thurles— Monks' School— Dialogues on the Road— Grateful Re-
flections—Nocturnal Alarm — Affectin? Incident— A Gay Consumptive — Part-
ing from True Friends— A Jolly Company — Lamentation on Lying — Walk to
Roscrea-jla Weariful Woman— A Centennarian— Charity Sermon— A Christian
Sister-WL Poor House— Visit to a Great Rjrewer— A Funeral— Father Mathew

—Remarkable Vivacity of the Irish-^Self Denial— Short Commons A

Snug Protestant Farmer's Household — Cool Reception.

AT eight o'clock in the evening, I was again by the
table of Mr. B, in Thurles ; and next morning entered
•a nunnery, and was shown all the apartments, the chapel,
and the beautiful garden, which, as one said, " is all
the world to us ; here we live, and here we are as hap-
py as we can be in this life." " I hope you will yet be
a Catholic," said one kindly to me, as we passed out ;
"it is the only true church."

They appeared to be well informed on American af-
fairs, and very intelligent. They have a school of
girls, and many of them Protestants.'

" What," I asked, u do you do about their religion ?"
"Oh, we don't interfere with that."

The monks have a school of boys, who are taught all
branches requisite to the duties of life, and at a suita-
ble age are apprenticed to places where they still keep

CHAP, viii.] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 139

an eye over them. If any are ungovernable, after the
third complaint by the master, the monks take him
away, and throw him upon his own resources. If the
master is too severe, he is removed to a better one.

The car left me at Thurles, and leaving my carpet-
bag, I set out to walk to Urlingford, a distance of ten
English miles, and it was now two o'clock. It was a
profitable walk, and not a lonely one, for these simple-
hearted people were meeting me at every corner, com-
ing out from their cabins, and walking u a bit" with
me ; inquiring about America, and telling me of their
country. One said, " We have a neighbor here from
America." He was called from a field and introduced ;
" I have a great partiality for the people in your coun-
try," said he; " but I hate their cursed slavery, and
left on that account. I lived with a planter who had
four hundred slaves, to whom he gave a peck of corn
each a week, and worked and whipped them hard. I
could not bear it, and left him, and came away." To
the honor of the Pope, be it said, that he has prohibit-
ed slavery in the church. Passing on to a company of
men cracking stones, I asked, u How much do you
earn in the day ?" " Ten-pence ; and how do you
think we can keep the breath a goin* with this, ma'am,
and put a rag upon the back ? Would you give us a
shillin' in your country ? If you would ensure me two
pence more than I have here, I would start to-morrow.
And do ye think we shall get the repale ? They won't
let us fight, and, by dad, I would fight this minut if
they would let me. We are oppressed to death by the
English, and we can't live much longer. What do
they think in America ?"

So anxious are these suffering creatures for the
repeal, that they cannot let a stranger who speaks to
them pass without asking the question. Such a speci-
men of self-control as they manifest, though many of
them are keenly alive to their privations, is truly un-
paralleled in any nation. O'Connell now restrains them
by a nod. Will he always be able to do so ?

As I left these warm-hearted patriots, an old man

140 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. vm.

told me I had three miles to walk, " and the night will
fall on ye, but nobody '11 hurt ye here, ma'am." I had
gone a little distance, when he called out, <c Do ye

fall on ye, but nobody '11 hurt ye here, ma'am." I had

he called out, " Do ye
belong to the army ?" A little mortified, I begged he

would not think I belonged to that craft. " I hope,
sir, you have not a bad opinion of me ?" " Oh, God
forgive me. Pardon me, lady ; I had not such a
thought of you, ma'am." I found that the wives of the
officers accompanied them, and he thought I might be
of the number. I had walked six and a-half miles ;
night had " come on me," but the moon was now and
then struggling through the misty clouds, when a man
passed me upon a jaunting-car, and asked how far I
had to walk. " You had better get up and ride; the
way is lonely." Gladly I did so, and found him a
plain, common-sense farmer, who, going through all in-
terrogations of America, and talking over the woes of
Ireland, ended by asking, " Do you think we shall have
the repale ?"

I heard a kind welcome most gladly at the house of
Mr. C. in Urlingford, and gave him a particular reci-
tal of Mount Mellary. Being a Catholic to the bone,
he cannot but love such an establishment as this. He
has ever treated me with kindness, and placed me
under obligations for many little favors, which as a
stranger were very grateful to my feelings. The re-
membrance of these kindnesses are sweet and salutary
on a foreign shore, which none but a stranger can fully
appreciate. I went next to Dr. White's. Of this family
I can never say enough. Never, never can I forget
their unparalleled, unceasing good-nature, always in ex-
ercise ; never with any display, but always as though
they were obliged to me for accepting it. My food,
my lodging, my fire, my walking or riding, must be all
for my highest comfort. The kindness of this family
was confined to no sect or nation, the rich or the poor.
The beggar, too, had a kind welcome.

A few mornings after my return, at the dawning of
day, I heard a loud knocking at the door, and supposed
some messenger in haste had called for the doctor,

CHAP, vin.] CO. OP KILKENNY. 141

This was followed by the most unearthly scream, which
was long and repeated. I first tried to collect myself,
to ascertain whether I was asleep, in the body or out,
for nothing that was human like this had I ever heard ;
and surely nothing superhuman would make such a
shout at a door inhabited by man. I looked out, but
durst neither arise or call for help. The family and
servants were all above ; and when repeated yells had
echoed and re-echoed, the servant opened the door,
and all was still. I could not see what entered, and
waited for an explanation, supposing there must be
some out-of-the-way animal appended to the family.
In a moment, the servant entered with, " Don't be
afeard, ma'am ; it's only the beggar woman that sleeps
out of doors. She always comes at light to get the
potatoe, and if I am not up, she makes that scream to
wake me. She won't hurt ye. She's innocent, and
goes away when she gets the potatoe." This was the
beggar I had seen asleep under the wall, when going
to the mines. I ventured out, and saw her snugly
sitting on the hearth, enlivening the turf under the
pot. She was more than good-looking for a woman
who must have been forty-five, and seventeen years of
which she had buffetted storm and sleet, snow and
rain, in open air. She shrunk from my rude gaze. I
said good morning ; she made no answer.

" Why are you sitting here ?" I added. " Waiting
for the potatoe, ma'am."

When the potatoes were ready, she selected the quan-
tity and quality she liked, took them in her petticoat,
and hurried out.

Her voice was soft, and her manners childlike, wholly
at variance with the terrific scream she made at the
door. The doctor gave me the history of this strange
anomaly. " She was of a good family, married well,
and in all Ireland," he added, " there was not a better
housekeeper. But her husband died, and by a train
of misfortunes, she lost all. Her relations were
treacherous, and she was at last ruined. Disappointed
and jealous of the world, she determined to leave its

142 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. vm.

society, and wandered from home, living on the little
money she had ; washing her clothes in the brooks and
springs, as she met them ; keeping herself cleanly for
years ; sleeping in open air, wrapped in her cloak,
She appeared sane, but never saluted any one, nor
never asked charity, till all she had was gone. Whe-
ther she had recourse to that noise as a defence was
not known, but it proved a sure one. The police had
endeavored to take her into some shelter from the
rain, but every one would take up his c two heels,'
when she set up that scream. No one in the parish
ever molested her; every child is afraid of the yell."
She had found her way to the doctor's house years
before, and he had made her welcome to a breakfast
and dinner, and she now calls at the dawn of day. If
the servant be not up, she gives the scream, and the
door is soon opened. Twelve is her dinner-hour, and
the time is always understood. She is losing her care
over her clothes and person, though she is quite re-
moved from the appearance of a dirty beggar. She
never whines, nor tells you of the Blessed Virgin, or
promises prayers ; but simply asks, in a pleasant tone,
" will you give me some potatoes ?" She never stops
to eat them in the house, but gives a short " Thank
you," and goes hastily out. This is " the beggar that
sleeps out of doors," and the rustic says to all who pass,
" Don't ye disturb her ; for this same bawl would
frighten the life of ye."

The hereditary sufferings which have been trans-
mitted from father to son, through many generations
in Ireland, have developed every propensity of the
heart in striking characters, and every variation of
mind may be seen in one day's walk, by an attentive
observer — from strength to weakness, from love to
hatred, and from right to wrong. u Do you wish to

see a new object ?" said Mrs. W , " step to the

door." Here sat upon the ground a young woman,
with a sweet infant in her arms, her person genteel,
her features peculiarly symmetrical ; a placid blue eye,
finely arched eyebrows, and a high smooth forehead,

CHAP, viii.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 143

fair skin, and brown hair ; a subdued voice, and of the
gentlest manners. She approaches softly, often with-
out speaking ; and if a piece be offered, she sits down
quietly, feeding the infant, which she always calls
General, and of which she is peculiarly fond. While
eating, she mutters to herself, often using the name of
William.

" And who is William ?" I asked. a He's my hus-
band, ma'am." And is he kind to you?" " He is
not, ma'am ; he bates me." u And for what does he
beat you ?" " Because I don't bring him home more
potatoes, ma'am.'' This was spoken in the most child-
like simplicity, and like one that had been chastised for
an alleged fault which had never been committed.

Inquiring who or what she might be, her simple his-
tory was, that her husband was a brute, and had so mis-
used her that she had become insane, but perfectly do-
cile. He turned her upon the street daily, to beg her
own bread and his food ; and wheat she returned with a
scanty supply, he flogged her, while she never resisted,
nor upbraided him. As she adjusted her General upon
her back, she muttered something about her William,
touching the hearts of all with pity, and they could
only say, " Poor thing ! she is crazed." And no won-
der if the greater part of Ireland were crazed. Not a
week since I have landed on these shores, but I have
seen sufferers, should their tale be told, which would
move the pity of the most unfeeling.

As I was inquiring one day of an old woman the dis-
tance to a place, u Ask the lady to walk in, and rest
her a bit," said the old man. I walked in, and found
a cleanly swept cabin, a bed behind the door, and a
little pile of turf and a couple of stools. The old man
had his spade in his hand, and when I asked him what
he had a day, u Not scarcely enough to give the sup
and the bit, ma'am." This emphatically tells the story
of the manner of eating among all the peasantry. They
take the potatoe in the hand, bite off a bit, and take a
sup of milk from the cup. u Have you children ?"
" Not one at home. The last that staid with me was a

144 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. vm.

fine lad of twenty-two. He was ailin' a bit, and went
to bed there, and slept well through the night ; in the
mornin' he asked for cold water. There was none, and
I said, i Wait and I will go to the spring.' ' You can't
go now ; it's too early,' and turned away his face, and
departed. That was the last of my boy, God be prais-
ed ! and now the father and I are alone, and shall soon
be with him, for ye see we are old, and toil'd many a
wairy day to rair our lads, and now the wide waters or
the grave separate us." There was a kind of pathos in
the old lady's allusions, which savored of ancient days,
when, as Cambrensis says in the twelfth century, u the
Irish always expressed their grief musically."

When I returned to the doctor's, I found among his
beneficiaries a pale young girl of nineteen, interesting
in her manners, who had come there with threatening
symptoms of a decline. She possessed all the Irish
vivacity, and though with a severe cough and husky
voice, yet she was always in a cheerful mood ; and her
lively song and merry laugh told you that her heart
was buoyant, though pain often held her eyes waking
most of the night. Her voice was sweet as the harp,
and often when I heard it at a distance, could not pur-
suade myself but it was a flute. She had stored her
memory with the songs of the country, and her company
was always acceptable among her class on account of
this acquirement, as well as the power of mimicry,
which she eminently possessed. She would screen her-
self from sight behind some curtain, and go through a
play, performing every part, and sing with the voice of
a man or a woman as the case might require. One
night she had been amusing us in this way, when she
appeared from behind the screen, and a marble-like
paleness was over her face. I said to her, u I fear you
have injured yourself." She answered not, but sat
down, and sung u The Soldier's Grave" in so pathetic
a manner, that I wished myself away. They were
sounds I had heard in my native country, but never so
touching, because the voice that made them was so
young, and probably soon would be hushed in death.

CHAP, viii.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 145

Even now, while writing, I hear her sweet voice hum-
ming a tune in the chamber where she sits alone in the
dark. She is of humble birth, and her mother is a
widow, and she has had no assistance of education to
raise her above the poorest and most ignorant peasant ;
yet nature has struggled, or rather genius, through
many difficulties, and placed her where, even now, she
appears to better advantage, than many who have been
tolerably educated ; but the flower is apparently droop-
ing, and must soon fall from the stem. Yet she will
laugh and sing on, even when those about her are weep-
ing at her premature decay. Last evening a dancing-
master came in with a little son, each of them having a
fiddle ; and the music and dancing commenced. Mary
(for that is the invalid's name) was asked to dance and
complied ; and with much ease and grace performed her
part. This no doubt she would not hesitate to do, while
her feet could move, and she knew there was but a week
between her and the grave. From childhood she
has been taught to practice it, till it is interwoven in
her very nature, and has become part and parcel of her-
self.

Again I must leave these people and this family, and
take a tour to Roscrea ; and everything was done to
make the journey comfortable. A car and driver were
provided to take me twenty miles, which was the dis-
tance, free of expense. u You will come back to us,J>
said the doctor and his wife, u and you shall always
find a welcome home, and wish we could do better."
" Why is it," I said, as I passed from the sound of
these kind voices, " that such favors should be shown
to me by these strangers who had never seen me, while
many were looking on me with suspicion, and wondering
what strange fancy should have brought me here ?"
They manifested no fear about my heretical Protestant-
ism, though I talked freely, and read the Scriptures in
their hearing many a time. They conducted me to
the Protestant church, showing me the way, and then
turned to go to their own. I felt that their liberality
in opinion and conduct was quite a rebuke on many,
7

146 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vm.

who profess the guidance of the Scriptures and the
teaching of the Holy Ghost.

A letter of introduction was given me to a sister of

Mr. C of Urlingford, who lived six miles from

Roscrea. A ride through a pleasant country, and on a
good road, took us at sunset in sight of the spot where
the letter was to be presented. The boy had seventeen
miles to travel that night, and I sent him back when in
sight of the town, and made my way through all sorts
of company alone. A fair had been held, and happy
was I to ascertain that among all the motley group, not
one was staggering, not one was boisterous, or disposed
to make disturbance. A " God save ye kindly, lady,"
from every rustic, with his pipe, and pig and ass he pur-
chased at the fair ; and the women with their burden
on their backs did the same. Could I fear from such a
people as this ?

I reached the house of the shopkeeper, and present-
ing my dread letter, was kindly received, and kindly
entertained. The master had grown rich by dint of
the best of management ; his father, it is said, having
given him a barrel of flour, telling him to make his for-
tune on that, which he did. He was a baker, now a
thrifty shopkeeper. But I had a little cause of regret
here, for I heard one evening loud talking and singing
over head, and one of the sons apologised by saying a
few friends had walked in to spend the evening by
themselves. a Will you go up and see them ? If you
wish to see all Ireland, there is a part of it, and they
will be proud to see you." Without getting my an-
swer, he went to the room, and told the company an
American lady was wishing to see them. " Welcome,
welcome. Bid her speed." I entered, and found six
men and two girls, who had been drinking till quite
merry.

" What will ye have, lady ? We are glad to see an
American." " I am a tetotalcr, and wish you were
all the same." I soon found this was no place for exhor-
tation. They had taken a little beyond the u modera-
tion," and when one cried one thing, and one another,

CHAP, viii.] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 147

I was quite glad to make my courtesy, after being told
by an old man that, beggin7 my pardon, he believed I
was a nonsensical woman, goin' about the country.
They all cried out, " A blackguard, she is a dacent
body." And I was glad to make my escape from this
hornet's nest ; but my lecture to the family, when I
went down, was still more unpalatable ; for they sold
the " good creature" moderately ; and " what right had
I to trouble myself?" seemed to be the feeling, when I
was treated hospitably, though this was not said. Some
unpleasant things followed, in which a servant was in-
volved, which I regretted ; for though she was blame-
able, yet she did as most servants do in all Ireland, and
did as she was trained j and leaving all personalities
out of the question, I would say, that the habit of
teaching servants to say the " mistress is out," and tell-
ing lies of convenience, leads to most serious conse-
quences. And though this is not confined to Ireland,
yet here it has full play ; and not among Roman Ca-
tholics only — all, all are poisoned, and often have I
found myself totally led wrong by some wink or in-
uendo from the mistress to the servant, and when I
have admonished the servant, u What can I do ? I
must please the mistress, or lose the place." The habit
of deceiving, if it can be done adroitly, without detec-
tion, and answer the present demand, is not thought
sinful by many from whom I should have expected bet-
ter things. The lower order are always in the fault,
when this habit is mentioned ; but children and ser-
vants are what their mothers and mistresses make them,
in most cases.

I was once seated at a dinner-table in a fashionable
Protestant family ; and the mother, who was a widow,
had three young daughters at her side, when she enter-
tained her guests with a recital of a cunning lie, deeply
laid, which succeeded happily, in cautioning a young
man to do better ; and she ended by saying, " Did I not
do it admirably ? He never detected the lie ; and don't
you think I am a good manager ?" All answered in
the affirmative, that it was most excellently done. The

148 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vm.

daughters joined in the acclamation, and all went off
most flatteringly. The servant was in the room when
part of this happy lie was related.

Is this a solitary case ? I wish it were ; but many of
the like have I met all over Ireland. I speak not in anger,
but in kindness. It is a dangerous evil ; an evil which,
when diffused through society, is a fatal blot upon the
character ; and here let me beg you not to deceive your-
selves, supposing that it is confined to Protestants or
Romans, higher or lower order ; it is everywhere.

In the city of New York, some five years ago, the
female members of a congregation appointed a meeting
to agree that they would employ no more Catholic ser-
vants, because they were so intriguing, and their chil-
dren, who must be in contact with them, were learning
to be deceptive and be liars. Thus these girls must
lose their places, because they practised what they had
supposed was praiseworthy. When I mingled in so-
ciety in this country, I could see no difference in any
religion or party ; I found, to my sorrow, all were im-
plicated, with exception of some few families, and the
peasantry of the mountains. " Where is boasting then ?
it is excluded."

Pardon this digression, and pardon this preaching.
It is not my ill-will towards Ireland, but my good-will ;
it is not my hatred, but my love, that makes me speak
thus. I would that she had not a stain upon her gar-
ments. I would that all I have said on this point were
an error.

u But you would be a very unsafe guest," said
a shrewd lady, very much given to this fashionable in-
trigue, " if you are seeing and exposing these habits."
Unsafe indeed ! unsafe ! I cannot sympathize with
such unsafety. I never was afraid any stranger would
come in contact with myself and servants, lest they
should detect our intrigues. The family where I was
stopping had treated me kindly, and had done no un-
common wrong ; but I ventured to tell them the wrong,
which was certainly taking great liberty as a guest ; and
I would not place them behind any family of the gentry

CHAP.VIIL] CO. OF T1PPERARY. 149

in activity in business, hospitality to the poor, thrifty
management, and respectability, as the world has bap-
tized it.

After this night's encounter I made myself ready to
depart, having staid a day longer than I intended ;
and I left at an early hour, to walk six miles to Ros-
crea. My kind friends sent a boy with an ass and
car to carry me, which overtook me in sight of the
town. I was fatigued ; a hill was before me, and a mile
to the place. I got upon the car ; the obstinate ass ab-
solutely refused to receive and carry the burden. In
spite of the beating of the boy, and the kind coaxing of
myself, he was as obstinate as an ass still ; and I left
the wayward brute and boy to manage as they liked,
and walked into the romantic town of Roscrea, among
ruins of castles, abbeys, &c., some built by the Danes,
some in the year 1200, and all going to decay. The
people here appeared better dressed ; the women wear-
ing bonnets and shoes more generally, and their gowns
not pinned up.

Protestants, Catholics, and Methodists, have their
churches here, and I was told that tolerable good feel-
ing exists among them all. Being detained by rain in
the house where I lodged, I had opportunity to see a
little more of domestic life in a Protestant whiskey-
house. The old lady had some higher notions of clean-
liness than all her Irish neighbors, saying she had
caught them by travelling in England. She was lame,
and could not walk ; but for the poor servant's sake, I
could have wished the lameness were in her tongue.
This servant she employed for the paltry sum of four
shillings a quarter, leaving her to make out the remain-
der by the low practice of begging from lodgers and
guests. Whether this poor girl was at work or at play,
doing right or doing wrong, all was the same ; she al-
ways went out when she should stay in, and stayed in
when she should be out. She was young, unused to
service, and u tremblingly alive" to please her mistress,
but never succeeded. This woman was Solomon's " con-
tinual dropping in a very rainy day." It was a cold

150 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP.VIII.

wet day ; I could not stay in a fireless room, and was
obliged to see all that passed. When any one called for
a dram, lame as she was, with a soft voice and happy
smile, she would hobble to the whiskey room, and fill a
glass.

It was a market day, and a goodly company of five
came in, and made the cleanly kitchen a depot for their
market lumber, much to the annoyance of the old lady ;
who, though she pleasantly invited them, yet wondered
how they dared be so impudent the moment they had
gone out. But at evening, when this family came in,
and the father asked the mother what she would drink,
and what he should get for the children, it was lovely
indeed. The mother drew near this gate of death, tak-
ing her children, notwithstanding all my entreaties to
leave them out of the gulf, and the children all declaring
they did not want it. But the father said his children
should fare as well as he did, and so all swallowed the
liquid fire together.

Finding I was from America, the good man invited
me to his house, for he intended selling off, and going
there ; and the boys said they would have the lumpers
boiled at seven o'clock on the following Monday, if I
would walk the five miles to enjoy them. This I
promised to do if possible, and said good night. " A
fine family, that," said my lame hostess ; " he is a great
farmer, has some hundreds in the bank, and if he goes
to America, he don't go empty handed." So much for
the salutary effects of the whiskey on the kind heart
of the old lady, towards this annoying family.

The next day was the Sabbath, and I inquired for
the clean Testament which the good woman had told me,
the day previous, had always been kept clean. It was
locked in a drawer, and the good woman, after consider-
able fixing, prepared the key, and produced the tidy-
kept book. It certainly spoke well for cleanliness,
for a leaf had not been ruffled, nor a page sullied
by the wicked finger of man or woman. It had been
as ^ securely kept as the Roman Catholic man, in a
neighboring parish, told me he kept his— he " tied a

CHAP, viii.] CO. OF T1PPERARY. 151

string about it." When I had carefully used this trea-
sure, it was locked up again, and I saw it nor its precepts
any more, till I left the house.

Among the crowds that returned from early mass,
was an old woman of one hundred, quite sprightly, and
who never fails of being every morning early sitting on
the gallery steps ; and as passengers go in, they drop a
little into her hand. I found many old people in this
town, as well as in all towns I had visited in Ireland ;
and not in any case had I found one who had lost his
faculties.

I went to the Protestant Church alone, and was
twice asked by the sexton if there was no person in
the town with whom I was acquainted. " Not one,"
I answered. " Not any one ?" " No, sir, not any one,"
at the same time telling him where I lodged. " I will
put you in his seat then." O ! what a thousand pities
I had not borrowed a gold ring !

The sermon was a charity one, and the introduction
an encomium on the Christianity of the English ; her
disinterested benevolence, that though she was particu-
lar to gather her own brood, yet she was willing that
all should have the benefit of her wings ; that all deno-
minations, though not of her church, were receiving
bountifully of her kindness. Some wicked intruder
whispered in my ear, that moment, " tithes ! tithes !
take all the poor unbeliever has ; but pay me my
tithes." He ended his sermon beautifully and scrip-
turally by saying, that nothing at the last day would
be accounted as benevolence, but what was attended
with self-denial. The landholders, he said, would have
a great account to give ; for his part he would rather
be a beggar than be rich, and have a heart to join
house to house and field to field, instead of giving to
the ppor, and " dispersing abroad." Excellent the-
ology ! if MENE TEKEL be not written on the practice.

When I returned from church, some potatoes were
crisping on a nice gridiron for me, which the father
had put there. A son of twenty-five was called in to
dinner, and told his mother that the old jackass, his

152 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP.VIH.

father, had taken the best gridiron to crisp my pota-
toes, and utterly refused taking any dinner on that
account. He staid in the kitchen while I ate my
potatoes, with his back towards me. What were the
peculiar virtues of this gridiron I did not learn ; but,
by way of apology, the mother told me that this " old
jackass" was a stepfather.

Monday morning, rose at five, to meet my engage-
ment with the boys, where the lumpers were to be in
readiness, and bade my hostess adieu, with her scolded
servant and hopeful son, whose every look and action
reminded me of Solomon's rod, the nicely kept Testa-
ment, and the bar of whiskey, and I said, on going out,

" I would not live always, I ask not to stay,"

if I must stay in a tabernacle like this. The rain
poured, and passing a few doors, I was spoken
to by a daughter-in-law of my hostess, who invi-
ted me to stop a few days ; this was an unexpected
kindness. She belonged to the society of Christian
Brethren, and seemed to understand the gospel prin-
ciple of treating strangers, better than many who are
sitting under the teaching of learned theologians. " I
have staid," she said u in the Protestant church, which
had the ' form without the power,' till I could stay no
longer." She visited with me in the houses of those
of like faith, whom I found very spiritual ; but I fear
in danger of running into the same error that others
in America of their belief have done, viz. that of being
so afraid of the law, as having no law at all. Father
Mathew, they said, had been a great curse ; because all
he did was under the law ; and they really regretted
he had ever been among them ; though some families
had had more bread, they acknowledged. And I was
severely rebuked for wishing to see him ; and, as a
Christian, I had no right to have anything to do with
him.

Had I never seen the hydra-headed monster, bi-
gotry, before, I should have put myself on the defen-
sive ; but here, reader, the case is hopeless. With but

CHAP, viir.] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 153

one eye, one ear, and a darkened understanding, boasting
heart, and half a dozen tongues, he has so much reli-
gion, he has none at all, or nothing that is tangible.
He stalks through the earth wielding a rod of iron, and
woe to the victim who comes in his way ; boasting of
being taught of God, he lacks the first principles of
religion, viz., charity and humility, without which
all is lost. But all such people have a certain race
to run, and if the seeds of saving grace are sown
in their hearts, this grace will sooner or later break off
the fetters. I said no more of Father Mathew, but
went to hear him two days in succession.

What a pity, pity, that the reasoning faculties of the
Irish as a nation have been left so uncultivated, and
that instinct and impulse have so powerful an ascen-
dancy. But above all, what a miserable religion is it
that does not humble but exalt the possessor !

Thursday — Walked away from the town, and un-
expectedly made my way to the poor house — everything
in order, everything in ke'eping^-'a^lreirtthy spot, and
good fires enlivening the hearths of the old people,
which appeared more like luxury than poverty. But"
the constant complaint of all in these houses, when
they can be heard by strangers, is the " thinness of the
stirabout, and the want of the tay and tobacco." An
old female confined to her bed looked entreatingly upon
me, to whom I said, " You are nearly home, ma'am."
"O!" she answered, "I have offended God, and
what shall I do ?" She appeared in great agony of
feeling, knew she must soon die, and afraid of the
judgment, I pointed her to the blood that cleanseth
from all sin. Instantly a woman came behind me, and
rudely called out, pulling me at the same time, u Come*
out of this place," hurrying me on. As soon as we
were out of the room, she begged a few pennies, chang-
ing her disgusting tone to one of softness and suppli-
cation. " Shame !" said I, " that you should rudely
draw me aw"ay"iTmn that pitiful old woman, to beg."
Knowing that the inmates are not allowed to ask
charity, as they are constantly living upon it, I de-
7*

154 CO. OP TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vm.

clined, and asked her how she should dare to take such
liberties. This custom of begging is so prevalent, that
I can find neither nook nor shade where to be safe,
except in the middle of a sermon ; they will follow you
to the church door, and be on the spot when you come
out.

* V Friday — I went to see a ruined antiquity, two miles
from the town, and the walk to it was more like Ely-
sian fields than that of commonplace earth and water.
Here were the seats of the wealthiest landlord, fitted
up in the most elegant style, and the miserable cabins
of the poor full of woe. Here was one of the most ex-
tensive distilleries still in operation in all Ireland, and
Father Mathew has a large field yet to occupy.

Calling in at the house of an Englishman, who was
an extensive brewer, I found him in his parlor, with a
well dressed sister from London, and was introduced
to them as an American lady. u I never saw but one
American lady," said the sister, " and she was very
wealthy ; but the most ignorant, unlearned creature
that I ever saw that was well dressed." u Alas for my
ignorant countrywoman!'' I sighed, " and will you tell
me what part of America was her residence ?" " Ha-
lifax," was the reply. Her brother seemed mortified,
and a silence ensued, when it was broken by my say-
ing, that sorry was I to say, that all the British colo-
nies were in a pitiful state as far as education was
concerned, and that whoever visits them in the Cana-
das, will find that but few comparatively are educated
of the native inhabitants. She was silenced, and should
have blushed at her own ignorance of the geography
of the country; for she actually thought Halifax be-
longed somewhere in the United States. I am truly
disgusted at so much national pride as is everywhere
met with in travelling, and when I feel any for my
own, it is only in self-defence. JThe conceited boasting
of those who have never read a1oytnlng"15irt a prKyer-
book, ami- never 'travelled beyond tne smoke of .their
"own chimney, is truly annoying.

Saturday evening a funeral passed, and I joined the

CHAP, viii.] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 155

proeesssion, and followed it into the chapel yard. The
corpse was carried around the chapel, and then brought
back to the corner where the grave was prepared. A
gilded coffin, with a lid put over like a band-box, was a
novelty quite unlike the snug mahogany one, screwed
closely down, with a plain plate upon the top, which I
had been accustomed to see. I expected and even
hoped to hear the Irish howl ; for when the corpse was
let into the grave, the poor old widowed mother, who
had crept a mile from the poor-house on her staff, to
see him buried, fell down upon her face, and gave the
most piteous cry. Another old woman rushed towards
her, calling out, " Stop, ye aregoin' to do what nobody
docs now. Get up and stop the bawlin'." She was
pulled up, and by force dragged away to a seat, and
told peremptorily by a man to stop her crying. " Ye
can't bring him back, and what's all this bawlin' about
what ye can't do ?"

" That is the very reason, sir," I said, " why she
weeps ; because she cannot bring him back ; let her
give vent a few moments to her grief, aud she will be
relieved."

Turning to her, I asked, " Is this your only son ?"
" One little boy I have with me in the poor-house,
ma'am. It is hard for mothers to see their children
die."

She was calm in a moment, and sat pale and silent
till all was over. The daughter, of about eighteen,
took the sheets with which the coffin was carried, into
her chequered apron, and a spade which had covered
with earth the coffin of her brother, and after all kneel-
ing down upon the ground to pray for the soul of the
departed a few moments, they went silently away.

Poor simple unheeded rustics ! No u sable hearse
or nodding plume" has honored your procession ; no
gilded mourning coach has brought the crippled grey-
hair'd mother to see this son of her love put in his nar-
row house ; no richly attired friends stood by when the
tumbling clods were rolling upon his coffin, to support
her, and shed their crocodile tears at the loss of so

156 CO. OP TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vin.

goodly a child. No ! she had the fearful sin of being
poor ; this alone must shut her out from sympathy,
must not even let her weep. The sister, too, was im-
plicated ; this blot of blots, this foul disgrace of pover-
ty was found on her. The homely apron which she
toil'd to purchase must wrap the shroud, and her coarse
laborious hands must lift the spade which covered the
bosom of her brother.

At eight o'clock the next morning, Father Mathew
gave a stirring scriptural discourse on the importance
of temperance, proving from scripture, as well as from
facts, the sin of using ardent spirits. The concourse
was immense, so that they u trode one upon another."
At twelve o'clock he gave another address. His sim-
ple, unaffected manner carries that evidence of sincerity
and integrity with it, that no one can doubt but he who
loves to doubt. His unabating zeal is beyond all
praise ; yet at this late hour do I hear his name tra-
duced by his countrymen, who are ascribing his object
to a political one. Yet among all his traducers not one
can be found who is an abstainer, whether he took the
pledge from him or from some other one ; and I should
not hesitate to say that in all Ireland he has no enemies
among the tetotalers ; few among the drunkards ;. but
many, many, among the moderate drinkers.

Monday morning he was again at the chapel, with
hundreds of children urging their way, who

" Pluck'd his gown to share the good man's smile."

It was a lovely sight ; angels could not weep at this —
Not a child was frowned upon, though the crowd was
pressing, so that with difficulty he made his way. Some
of the little ones he took in his arms ; on all heads he
put his hand, within his reach. I ascended the gallery,
and enjoyed an undisturbed view. A large circle was
formed ; in the enclosure of this circle were the chil-
dren, kneeling down, clasping their hands, and lisping
the pledge. Those who could not speak were carried
in the arms of their mothers, and they, kneeling,
repeated the pledge for them. Many a little one,

CHAP, vin.] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 157

when rising from its knees, did he raise in his arms,
kiss and bless it, then send it out from the ring. Three
hundred that day took a pledge to abstain from the use
of tobacco in all forms. This dirty article he ridiculed,
and begged of mothers to abstain from the shameful
practice. Among all the motley group, not one child
was heard to cry throughout the day, and they might
continually be seen crawling on all fours, pushing their
heads through the mass, to take the pledge, or make
their way out from the circle. One little child of but
two years and three months, when she took it, pushed
her blue bonnet through the crowd, sprung to her feet,
murmured in a sweet tone, " Fadder Matty," running
about the chapel, nor could she be stopped. She was
caught up, but would not be hushed, anct when her
name was asked, it was " Fadder Matty," till, by this
continual chatter, she so attracted the attention of all,
that she was carried from the chapel, and the song was
heard till it died in the distance.

A few moments before four, the assembly broke up,
and mothers and children ran after the good man, the
mothers crying, " The baby, plase, wants the pledge."
The pledge was given to many a baby in the chapel
yard, and on the street, till the coach, which was about
starting, shut the kind-hearted man from their sight.

1 succeeded to reach him through the crowd a letter
of introduction, and only had time to say, u I hope to
see you in Cork." This was a day of great triumph to
Father Mathew. li My hope, my strong hope," he
said, " is in the children ; they never break the pledge ;
and if the rising generation can be saved, the great
work will be accomplished."

I had heard much of this man in my own country,
but here I saw him, and must acknowledge he is the
only person of whom I had heard much praise, who ever
met the expectation given. He more than met it ; he
passed it by. He was farther removed from all that
could render him suspected than I had supposed, and I
was convinced that acquaintance must remove all hon-
est distrust.

158 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vm.

Had the object of my visit to Ireland been to have
rummaged castles and .abbeys, old graveyards and
bridges, for antiquities to spread before the public, the
public (to say the least) must have said, " We have
caught nothing." Many and most of these things I did
visit, but they left no other impression than to convince
me that a powerful, religious, and intelligent people
must have inhabited this island ; and they urged me on
to penetrate into bog and glen, mountain and cave, to
sec the remains of this people, to ascertain what
vestiges are left of the high-toned greatness, the mag-
nanimity of soul, the sweet breathing of poetry, and
the overflowing tenderness of heart, which must once
have pervaded this isle. I must not anticipate ; but
here will say, that if you will follow my zig-zag path
through bog and heathy mountain, I will show you in
these fastnesses, and among these rocks, a people on
whom the finger of God has left an impress that cannot
be misunderstood. If you get weary, we will sit down
by some sparkling rivulet, and lave us in the purest and
sweetest water that ever flowed, but the water of life
proceeding from the throne of God. If you get
hungry, some mountain Rebecca shall say, u come in,
ye stranger, and take a morsel, and we will set ye on
ycr way." Though not a torn leaf of the written vol-
ume of the word of God could be found, yet there em-
phatically this word is written, believed and prac-
tised.

Before leaving Roscrea, we will ascend to the top of
the castle, and see the town. This ancient building is
now used as a barrack. Dr. Downer, who politely
showed it me, was well acquainted with its history,
and obs rved, " you see what remains of its former
greatness, and what a lesson it gives of the frailty
of human grandeur." Cromwell had been here ; and
though it is said the memory of the wicked shall rot,
yet his is still flourishing in the hearts of all Ire-
land.

At night had full proof of Irish merriment, illus-
trated by half a dozen young men from the country,

CHAP, vni.] CO. OF TIPPER ARY. 159

who had come into town to assist a man in digging his
potatoes. Finding they had no where to lie down
after the fatigue of the day, they ate their potatoes,
" and rose up to play." The dancing and singing were
so boisterous, that they shook the cabin, and reached
the ears of most of the neighborhood, who supposed
they must be intoxicated. But all were tetotalers,
and had not taken a drop ; yet they never relaxed
during the night, and the morning found them still in
the same heart, though they had worked hard the pre-
ceding day, eating nothing but potatoes, nor slept any
through the night. An Irishman, to whom the circum-
stance was related, answered, " The Irishman's merri-
ment begins at his christening, and ends only when he
has been well waked." It is even so. The poor
Connaughtman, when at work for a rich landlord for
four-pence a day, will eat his potatoe, sleep in a barn,
he will sing and dance as merrily as the rich hunter
about the lakes of Killarney.

A little incident occurred one morning, which ego-
tism and boasting would forbid noticing, if both duty
and inclination did not call for an acknowledgment of
God's never ceasing care over his creatures, especially
to me in a land of strangers. A genteel tidy woman
came into the house every morning, to assist for an
hour or two, and get her breakfast. This woman was
sitting by the fire, when a sou of the landlady took up
a pennyworth of bread which the poor woman had
just bought, with a penny she had borrowed from his
mother. He said, u Is this yours, Peggy ?" " No
matter, Mickey, you are quite welcome ; take it — take
it." This was all she had for a breakfast for a daugh-
ter, who had walked thirteen miles the evening before
from a place of service, to see the mother. I had gone
to my room, and she entered. Seeing me, as she
thought, a little sober ; u And ma'am, I fear ye are
fretted. Don't fret ; the Lord is good. It was never
so dark with me as at this minute. My little slip of a
gal is come, and I have no breakfast for her, and it's
hard, ma'am, to have a child come to ye, and not have

160 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. vm.

a bit to give her to ate ; and I have taken off my pet-
ticoat, and pinned a piece of flannel about me, and the
good God have mercy on me, I don't know what to do,"
importuning me at the same time not to fret, the Lord
would certainly take care of me. " But I have six-
pence beside to pay for my rent, and the good God
send it to me, or 1 shall lose my little cabin to-morrow."
When her face was turned about, the sixpence was
put into her hand ; in an ecstacy of joy, she fell upon
her knees before the donor. This woman had been
the wife of an officer, and had seen something: of fash-
ionable life, but had not lost that native heart-feeling
which the uneducated Irish so eminently possess. In
her concern for me, she forgot the application of her
exhortation to herself; though she was fretting, she
seemed not to know it These Irish are a great ano-
maly to all but the Almighty : reader, remember the
sixpence.

1 was about departing for Galway, in hopes of find-
ing some money in the post-office, which was to be sent
there from Urlingford. This money was to come from
America to Urlingford ; I had but five shillings before
the sixpence was paid, and the distance to Galway was
more than seventy miles. On this four and sixpence
I must sleep, and eat, and ride, unless I should walk.
Should I not meet my money at Galway, I must walk
back, making one hundred and fifty miles or more.

It was October 29th, when I resolved on leaving
Roscrea, and walk to the Protestant friend, five miles
on my way, where the boys were to have the lumpers
prepared some mornings before. The road was very
muddy ; the good woman who was so obliged by the
sixpence would go with me to carry my basket. Rain
soon began to pour, and we returned. Sitting down,
meditating what next could be done, John Talbot, a
Quaker, entered, saying he had engaged a passage on
a car of a friend, who would carry me to the spot
where I wished to call. What could be brighter ? the
rain ceased, and I got upon the car with the Quaker
and his lady, and quite soon enough reached the Pro-

CHAP, vin.] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 161

testant family, for the company of these friends was
agreeable and instructive.

It was now nearly three o'clock, and making my way
to the cabin, through a muddy lane, I met sights untold ;
but I will tell you what I can. There were two pigs,
two dogs, two cats, and two batches of chickens just
introduced upon the theatre of action, which were en-
closed in a niche in the wall, and a huge pile of pota-
toes just poured upon the table for the workmen and
children. A hole in the mud floor for the pigs and
poultry to take their u bit," wooden stools and chairs
to sit down upon, and a pot not inferior in size to any
farmer's in Ireland. This was my friend's kitchen, and
these were the appurtenances, and this was the nice
family whose money was in the bank, whose children
were trained by a superior teacher, and whose virtues
wanted no finish but tetotalisrn. I thought I saw a
sly look from the Quaker, and a meaning reciprocation
from the spouse, when I was extolling the farmer on
the car.

When my thoughts were a little collected, I said,
u Well, my boys, the lumpers, 1 see, are ready."
" They are for the workmen ; father and mother are
gone to Birr, and won't be home till nine o'clock.''
Birr was the place I had hoped to see before^! slept ;
but it was now three o'clock, the road quite muddy,
and the lumpers were not for me, and the father and
mother gone. I resolved to test more fully the kind-
ness of the Quaker, and entered his gate. " Thee had
better stop, and rest thee till to-morrow ; and then see
thy friends." It was most thankfully accepted. It
would be useless to say that neatness and comfort abode
here ; the good housewife made her own bread, and
baked it as bread should be baked. They were Qua-
kers, and that one word, in every nation, comprises
all this. A supper of comfort, with fresh apples upon
the table — the first I had seen on a table in Ireland —
a cheerful fire, and clean bed, made me almost forget
that a wide ocean separated me from the privileges of
home. But another day was in prospect ; this day

162 KING'S COUNTY. [CHAP.IX.

arrived, and taking my breakfast at seven, I hastened
away, about nine, again to the thrifty farmer's.

The night's rest had made no improvement in the
cabin ; the keepers of it had returned, but so refined
had they become, that the master, who was standing
bolt upright, as if to guard the hole of the floor where
the pigs breakfasted (for he was near it), told me as
soon as 1 said " Good morning,'' that the " mistress
was out ;" and so she was, for I saw her slide into a
little room back of the outer door, as I entered. A
short good morning ended the call. These things are
not written to ridicule what could not be avoided, nor
to expose faults which are and should be kept hidden ;
but they are written because they might be avoided,
and should be censured ; they are nuisances which no
family, having the light of revelation and the benefits
of decent society, should present to the world. They
are a libel on the character of Him who is purity itself,
and who abhors all that is filthy. Poor human na-
ture !

CHAPTER IX.

Birr— A Miserable Protestant Lodging-house— A Rich Distiller's Family ruined
by Intemperance— A Wealthy Eccentric —Lord Rosse's Telescope, and Lord
Rosse—A Baptist Minister— Courtesy of the Children of the Irish Peasantry—
Another Unfortunate Letter of Introduction — Walk from Ballinasloe to Lough -
rea — Miserable Condition of the Poor — A returned Emigrant — Fellow Travel-
lers— An Interesting Trio— Reading the Bible — A Scripture Discussion — A.
Connaught Catholic's Experience of Church-going — Market-day in Loughrea —
A -Shebeen House— A Pig's Honesty— Remorseless Staring —More Bible Reading
— Scarcity of Female Beauty in Galway — Staring in Gahvay beyond Descrip-
tion— Ancient Burial-ground — Visit to a Presbyterian Minister who had just
married a Kich Wife— Laborers standing in the Market-place — Miserable
Lodgings— Walk to Oranmore — The name of '' American Stranger" a Key to
the People's Hearts —A Connamara Girl.

MY walk of five miles was not tedious ; the air was
wholesome, the lark was singing, the road smooth, and

CHAP, ix.] KING'S COUNTY. 163

the scenery pleasant. The town of Birr was the resi-
dence of Lord Rosse and his telescope, and here I had
hoped to have a feast of some other worlds of light but
this, on which I had so long figured to so little advan-
tage. It rained as I entered the town, and turning into
a neat little cottage, found a kind welcome by the clean-
ly master and mistress^ who are Roman Catholics, and
was invited to eat, and then they directed me to a Pro-
testant lodging-house. I say Protestant, because the
Catholics knowing me to be one, generally selected this
sort, supposing I should be better pleased. They told
me the people were kind and respectable ; this was
true, but the rooms were dark and without floors, and
two enormous hogs which were snoring in an adjoining
closet were called out to take their supper in the kitch-
en, which made the sum total a sad picture.* I was
kindly urged to take supper, and sat down with them,
took an apple, and passed a solitary evening. Not that
I was sorry for my undertaking, but the lack of all so-
cial comfort, where comfort should be expected. When
I went into my bed-roem 1 felt like bursting into tears ;
everything looked so forbidding, and so unlike clean-
liness about the bed. Clean sheets were begged, and
clean sheets were granted ; yet it was a doleful night,
and in the morning, after taking some potatoes, and ask-
ing for my bill, four pence wa» the answer. Cheap
indeed ! I paid her more.

The morning was dark ; the rain poured fast. At
six, a hearse passed, bearing the corpse of the son of a
distiller, who fell from his horse, and was killed, when
intoxicated. The keeper of the lodgings remarked,
that he had seen the father, and twelve sons grown
to manhood, in church together. Seven of these sons
have died by intemperance. Are whiskey-making,
whiskey-selling, and whiskey-drinking attended with a
blessing ?

* A cabin-keeper near Roserea, who kept her pigs in the room,
told me, " An' troth, ma'am, I'd take him into my bed wid me,
if he'd thrive any better." Her bed was curtained and her cabin
was clean.

164 KING'S COUNTY. [CHAP. ix.

I set off in the heavy rain to find the house or castle
. of a rich man, who was considered a great eccentric.
He was owner of three domains, but had divested them
of all their frippery, had put on a frize coat and
brogues, and literally condescended to men of low
estate in dress and equippage. He had taken many
orphans into his house, and provided them food and
clothing. When I reached his dwelling, my clothes

were profusely drenched. Mr. S was not at

home. I asked the housekeeper if I might step in till
the rain should abate and dry my clothes. She allowed
me to do so ; and I followed her through a ]ong gang-
way of desolated halls, to a kitchen, and found a com-
pany about to dine in the same way and on the same
materials as the cabin people do. The rain continued,
and an invitation to stop over 'night was not needed a
second time. A fire was made in a parlor, where no
carpets or supernumeraries met the eye. Tea, bread,
and butter were offered, and the housekeeper made
everything pleasant. She had embraced the principles
of her master, who had taken her, when but two years
old, begging her from a widowed mother, who was em-
barking for England. He had been a father, indeed,
she said, and the care of the house was entrusted to
<yher.

When I was comfortably prepared in my lodging-
room, with a fire and clean bed, and contrasted it with
the preceding night, in what extremes do I find myself,
from cabin to castle, tossed like a " rolling thing be-
fore a whirlwind," yet never destroyed. 1 slept in
peace, and thanked God that in Ireland one rich godly
man could be found, who called all mankind his bre-
thren.

In the morning I took my breakfast, was kindly in-
vited to come when Mr. S. should be at home, and
went out, and called at the lodge-house, where was a
godly-woman, poor in this world, but rich in faith. A
pleasant hour was passed with her, for with such, les-
sons are to be learned which the rich cannot teach.
The rain had deluged the country the preceding night ;

CHAP, ix.] KING'S COUNTY. 165

and many a poor cabin was swept away with the misera-
ble furniture, and the affrighted inmates had fled, with
their children in their arms, naked as they were, from
their beds of straw.

The lawn containing the telescope of Lord Rosse was
open, and passing the gate, the old lady who presided
in the lodge asked me to go through the grounds, which
were free to all. Much did I regret that clouds obscur-
ed the sky the whole time that I was in Birr, so that
not one gaze could I have through that magnificent in-
strument. The pipe is fifty-two feet in length, and six
and a half in diameter. The earl is mentioned as a man
of great philanthropy, and much beloved by the gentry
and poor.

Sabbath. — Heard the Baptist minister preach to an
audience of five, and he likewise broke bread to three.
He observed, when he went out, that he felt it his duty
to keep the light aburning, the more so, as there were
but a few tapers kindled in the island. In the inter-
mission, heard a sermon in the neat Methodist chapel,
and that day and evening heard four good sermons.
At the house of Mr. W. heard a Roman Catholic, who
had been converted from Popery, relate his exercises of
mind. A few others had renounced the doctrines, and
united with Protestant churches. The priest at whose
chapel he attended had left also, and become a Pres-
byterian preacher. It was remarked by a Presbyterian
clergyman, that when any become converts from that
church, they are the most --spiritual Christians of all
others, and we must take great strides to keep up with
them.

November 4th. — Early on foot. I commenced a walk
to Ballinasloe. The sun rose most beautifully; such
a morning my eyes had not greeted for months ; no-
thing was wanting to make sky, cloud, air, and earth
most charming, but the curse of poverty removed from
this beautiful island, or the curse of oppression, rather.
The poor laborers were going to their work, smoking or
singing, their tattered garments but an apology for
clothing. As I passed the wretched cabins, now and

166 CO. OP GALWAY. [CHAP. ix.

then the happy voice of some child singing a merry song
greeted my ear, and on the muddy path before me heard
a little girl of eight years old, who was seated on a car,
driving an ass, humming a monotonous tune ; and going
to her said, " Good morning, little girl." " Good
morrow kindly." u Will you let me put my basket on
your car?" " I will, ma'am."

The manner which the children of the peasantry an-
swer any question is quite pleasant. They never say
ayes," or ano;" but " I have not, ma'am," " I will,
ma'am,'' "I do, ma'am," or " do not, ma'am," &c.

u Where have you been, little girl?" I inquired.
"To carry my father to town, ma'am.7'

It was early ; she had been more than a mile, and
was returning, singing, to her breakfast of potatoes
(which she said she had not yet taken), clothed in
miserable habiliments, and as happy as the child of a
king. Getting a very pretty ;' Thank ye, ma'am," for
an apple, I gave my interesting companion good morn-
ing, who said, u I must turn up the lane, ma'am." I
looked after this self-possessed child, bare-headed, bare-
footed, seated on a car, guiding an ass, at that early
hour, going out without breakfast, and surely she lack-
ed nothing but to be the daughter of Lord Rosse to
enable her to measure the distance of the planets at the
age of sixteen. But hush ! " she must be kept in her
rank."

I met many interesting characters through the morn-
ing ; and whether laborer or beggar, most of them were
smoking, and none of them in a fretful mood. I talked
a little with all, and scarcely spoke to one who did not
drop something in my ear worth recalling. It is noticea-
ble in all the peasantry of Ireland, that whether the idea
be new or old which they advance, it will be given in
such a novel dress, and in so unexpected a manner, that
something new, and often something beautiful, will be
suggested to the mind.

At the foot of a hill, two miles from the town, I sat
down upon a stone, opposite a company of men and one
woman, digging potatoes. " She seems to be a lady,"

CHAP, ix.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 167

said one, peeping through the hedge to see me. The
woman left her spade, and did the same. I was about
to enter into conversation, when a young man with his
wife going on a car to the town, invited me to get up
and ride. A long hill was before me, and the ride was
acceptable. I resolved to avail myself of every invita-
tion to ride on any vehicle, however humble ; for two
reasons — to rest me, and to learn more of the people
than I could by walking alone. JTo be a peasant my-
self, was the only way of getting at faet^ which I was

Now for the reception. Dr. White, in his good na-
ture, had urged a letter upon me to a familj whom he
had befriended, and of whom he had the highest regard.
He had not seen them for some years ; " and will you,"
he said, " do me the favor to give them this letter
yourself?" I could not refuse him, though, when he
added, they had become quite prosperous, and were
very much afflicted when he first became acquainted
with them, I well knew what to expect, if they were like
most upstarts in life. But go I must, and go I did, and
here is the result.

My first depot was into a whiskey room, and a chill
came over me. By this they had grown rich. A bro-
ther of the family had spent some years in America, and
was much attached to it, but unfortunately this brother
was absent. Another was behind the counter, busy in
measuring whiskey, and in every nation where property
is acquired by this degrading practice, the finer sensibi-
lities of the heart are all blasted, and no age or station
commands either attention or respect, that does not ad-
minister to the interests "of the traffic dealer. Long I
waited before the customers were served. Then seeing
a little pause, I presented the letter. It was read, but
u Who is this Doctor White ? Did he ever live in
Thurles ? I think I have heard of him, but don't know
him. My brother, who has been to America, would be
happy indeed to see you, but he is gone to Dublin ; he
would render you any service. My sister too is gone,
and the family are quite deserted "

168 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. ix.

I then asked the privilege of writing a note to the
Doctor, which was readily granted ; while I was doing
so, in an adjoining room, a young woman entered, and
passed through without speaking. The brother then
came in, and begged me to step into the next door and
write as the room I was then in was not his. When I
entered the door, the young woman who had previously
passed through, was standing in the room, with the let-
ter from Doctor W. in her hand, whom the young man
introduced as his sister. I saw the manoeuvering ; but
took all in sober earnest. The sister was so delighted
to do something for Doctor W. ; he had served them
years ago, and she should never forget his goodness.
u Do walk up stairs, and tell us what we can do for
you ? you must have some dinner, and I will give you
^pjeonie chop till dinner is ready." Finding I did not
take flesh, she was flung into great distress, " what
should she do to make me comfortable ?" Some cheese
?and milk were brought, and she talked religiously on
/ self-denial, was much given to despondency, loved re-
tirement, suddenly begged pardon, but she had an en-
gagement, and would leave me unmolested to finish my
lunch and my letter.

The brother soon entered, asking for his sister ; but
she would soon be in, and he regretted much that he
was so busy, that he could not go about the town with
me. The blarney was under full sail, and who does
not like blarney ? So I finished my letter, walked into
and through the pretty town, visited the lunatic asylum,
a noble building, with many hundreds of lunatics. I
returned to the house at sunset ; all was solitude, as if
the finger of death were in the dwelling. The servant
who opened the door spoke not, and I went up stairs
to get my basket and parasol. The parlor door was
locked. I sat down on a little couch near by, when
the servant came softly, well schooled in duplicity, and
in a soft tone said, " My mistress told me to say we
have no beds for you ; your basket is in the hall ; she
has gone out to spend the night." " Where is my pa-
rasol ?" " O you can't have that ; it is locked in the

CHAP, ix.j CO. OF GAL WAY. 169

parlor. You can call and get it to-morrow." I did
call on the morrow, and left a note for the sentimental
young lady, which I hoped might do her good in her
solitude.

Jn a neat little cottage I found the cleanest accom-
modations. They were a snug little room on the first
floor, with a nicely curtained bed, a turf fire, two can-
dles, and some crisped potatoes, and all for the bill of
four pence. I was certainly the gainer, even had I
wished to have stopped with the doctor's friend ; and
had I been kindly received, I should not have enjoyed
such secluded comforts as were mine in that silent re-
treat. When I was in quiet possession of all these
enjoyments, I sent up a prayer that I might be cured,
effectually cured, of putting myself in the power of the
proud, the ignorant, yes, the ungodly world, to abuse
me — to trifle with every feeling of my heart, which nat-
urally inclines me to be credulous.

Why am I not content with the resources God has
supplied me, without running to silly worms for aid
which I can do without ? Why not turn to the God that
is within me, and there seek that honor which conies
from above ? Give me truth, justice, and integrity for
my letters of introduction, and I will ask no more.*
Two young men in the house divided the thirty miles to
Galway into three parts, giving me stopping places each
day, to see the country ; arid early in the morning, in a
pleasant if not happy mood, I was on my way, refreshed
with rest, determined that no treatment in 'Ireland
should make me unhappy. -

Walking a few miles, it began to rain. Turning to
a miserable cabin without a window, or a chimney, the
smoke issuing from the door, I found a widow pre-
paring a basket of potatoes for her ducks. " May be
ye'd take a potato, ma'am," taking a couple and peel-
ing them with her fingers. I took them, and they

* If the professed Christian, with the Bible in his hand, do not
know his duty towards the stranger, then let him " tie a string"
around that Bible, and go into some mountain cabin where the Bi-
ble has never been, and there take a lesson.
8

170 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. ix.

made me a comfortable repast. At two o'clock I enter-
ed a second cabin ; a poor widow woman was carding
wool, sitting literally in the mud. These huts are al-
ways muddy, where the thatch is poor and the rain can
penetrate. Five children were about her, waiting for
the potatoes which had not yet been put over. They
had come in from their work hungry, and the sum total
was a pitiful sight. Asking her if she tilled any land,
she answered, u I pay rent for five acres, but the chil-
dren cannot till it. I am waitin' till they are rair'd,
hoping I can then raise somethin', and if I give it up, I
cannot get it again." Poor as she was, she had paid a
pound an acre on this land, by going out with her chil-
dren and working in the fields, at three pence and six
pence a day.* The reader must know, that in many
parts of the south and west, when it is neither seed
time or harvest, many a man works for six pence,
four pence, and often in the winter for three pence
a day.

— She begged me to wait for some potatoes, but I could
not. Passing on, I found a man and his wife win-
nowing oats by the way side, and sitting down upon
a pile of straw, told them my pedigree ; and so in-
terested did they become, that I was urged to go in
and take some potatoes, which they said were already
boiled. I went in, and the sight of the hovel was
frightful even to me. How can man, who is made in
the image of God, sit here, eat here, and sleep here ?
was my honest and silent inquiry. A sickly dirty
child of two years old, that could neither stand nor
talk, was sitting upon a dirty pillow, and two or three
more in rags about the hearth. From this abode a
daughter of eighteen was preparing to go to America,
to get her pound and a half a month for service. In
this cabin she had been born, in this had she acquired

* Does this look like idleness ? Many a poor widow have I
seen, with some little son or daughter, spreading her manure by
moonlight, over her scanty patch of ground ; or before the rising of
the sun, going out with her whisp about her forehead, and basket to
her back, to gather her turf or potatoes.

CHAP, ix.] CO. OP GALWAY. 171

all the knowledge of domestic duties she possessed, and
from this cabin she was about to be transported into
that depot for all and for everything that by " hook or
by crook" can float across the waters.

A letter of introduction, reader, was wanted by the
mother, and of recommendation too ! What could I
do ? I had eaten of their potatoes, and money they
would not take ; u but if ye'd spake a good word for
my daughter, it's all I would want, and she's as strong /,
a gal as ye'd meet in a day's walk." The good sense**| fS>
of the mother at last hit upon a proper expedient ; she j
saw her mistake, and only requested that I should [
write my name for the girl, and when she went to New;
York, she would take it and show it to me, should shej
find me there. I wrote a few lines, much to their
gratification, which the mother and daughter read with '••
ease. This little attention they greatly appreciated,
and we parted mutually honored by exchange of \
favors.

I had left the cabin when the mother called after

me, u Will ye call, lady, upon Mrs. L . She lives

on the hill ; she is rich, and could do anything for ye
that ye might be wantin'. She's a good and a kind
lady to the poor." Assuring her I had not come to
visit the rich, and that I had enjoyed a good dinner
in her cabin, she then pointed me to a family who had
spent some years in America, and returned with a
handsome fortune. 1 went to the house ; the mistress
was gone, but going to the barn, I found the man busied
at work, who appeared quite Americanised. He told
me much of New York, for he had left it since I had.
He was whole and tidy, and made quite a contrast to
the tattered one working with him. u You must go in,
and take some dinner with us," he said. " I have had
some potatoes, sir, and do not need any."

" Potatoes !" he answered, disdainfully. " You can't
eat potatoes. I know what you have in America, and
how you all live." For a half hour I felt transported
to New York, forgetting that I had ten miles to walk,
with a basket on my arm, in Ireland, alone. This man

172 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. ix.

ten years before went to New York, with his newly
married wife, not worth a pound ; both went out to
service, and both laid by money, and have now re-
turned with a pretty fortune, " to lay their bones," as
he said, " on the old soil."

u This goin' to America," said the laboring man,
lt makes the Irish, when they come home, quite altered
entirely."

I felt like leaving home when I left the yard, but in a
few minutes walk a new companion accosted me. A
traveller with a stick and bundle in his hand saluted me
with, " A fine day, ma'am, for walkin', beggin' your
pardon ; and how far may ye be travellin' ?" u To the
next town, sir." u And that's the way I'm a goin' ;
and as ye seem to be a stranger (English, I 'spose), if
I can sarve ye any way, shall I take yer basket ? Ye
seem to be light on the fut, but the way is long before
ye." u It may trouble you, sir, as you have a bundle."

" Not at all at all, ma'am. I wish 'twas twice as
heavy. I always love to mind strangers, and ye'll see
all the Irish so entirely. I'm a gardener, and goin' to
Galway to be a steward, and do ye go to Galway,
ma'am ? I'll carry your basket entirely, ma'am, and
get yo a good lodgin' place, sich a nice body as ye
seem to be must feel quare among strangers ; but ye've
nothin' to fear in Ireland. Ye may travel all night,
and nobody "'11 touch ye, ma'am." I did not believe it
then, as I do now, for I had not travelled by night alone,
as I have since.

His volubility never ceased, till a beggar woman,
with an enormous sack of potatoes under a ragged cloak,
joined us, and we formed a trio of no common interest.
She was a woman of more than sixty, yet the bloom
had not left her cheeks, and when I said, u You look
young and strong;" UI am aged, ma'am, and my
breath is getting cowld,'' was the answer. Pity, I
thought, that such a breath as yours had not been
drawn in some more fortunate isle, where

" Beauty's gems and woman's worth are better known."

CHAP, ix.] CO. OF GALWAY. 1T3

She would and did keep our company, though twice she
stopped to rest. A well dressed woman joined us, with
her shoes and stockings in her hand ; her feet, like
mine, were crippled, and we entered the large town of
Loughrea as night was falling. Here the beggar and
tidy woman left us, and through the narrow muddy
streets we wended oui4 way, to the extremity of the
town, which is a mile and a-half in extent, if my guide
and weary feet may be believed.

My never-tiring companion conducted me into an
apartment, which looked more like the end of all human
hopes than an abode for the living and breathing ; and
had 1 been in any other country but Ireland, I should
have shrunk back, fearing I had entered a den of rob-
bers. The grandmother, man and wife, a joyous host
of ruddy, truly dirty urchins, with pigs, and stools,
filled the muddy cabin almost to suffocation.

" And can ye give this lady here a clane bed, and it's
she that can tell ye she's from New York, and a stran-
ger ; and I wouldn't leave her in any dirty hovel we'd
chance to find."

The potatoes were now emptied from the pot ; I
asked for one, always finding this was the best and
surest avenue to their hearts. One was immediately
undressed, and put upon the coals. The old grand-
mother said, " Our beds are all in one room, and may-
be the lady, bein' a stranger, she wouldn't like to sleep
with so many ; and while she's aitin' the pratee, I'll go
and seek a lodgin'."

This was kind, and quite in keeping with all my feel-
ings. " And be sure," called out my companion, " you
get the clane room and bed."

She returned with good tidings, and I was introduced
to my new lodgings, a little different from the one I had
left, but not in the best keeping ; but I was in Con-
naught, and Connaughtmen were there. In the evening
I observed the mistress in a separate apartment read-
ing, and asked what she had that seemed so to interest
her. " A good book, "was the answer. Knowing they
were Roman Catholics, I did not think it was a Bible ;

174 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. ix.

and when she put it into my hand, saying, '" Have you
read this?" pointing to the miracle of the loaves and
fishes, I was happily disappointed. it Will you read
it?" she asked. I did so, and much more besides,
while the men who were sitting by seemed deeply inte-
rested ; and one poor Connaughtman, on whom nature
had not lavished all her gifts, and education had not
given one specimen of her handywork, was in gaping
astonishment, and wondered why he had not heard the
like afore. " By dad," said he to the landlord, " and
why didn't we never hear the like from the praist ?"
The landlord being one step in advance in intelligence,
and a little piqued for the reputation of the priest,
silenced him by saying, " But sure we have, and a
great dale more." Some five or six chapters had been
read, when the Connaughtman suddenly inquired, uAnd
do ye go to church, ma'am ? I was never in one but
once," he continued, " and the divil take me if I ever
get cotcht there again. Oh, musha, had ye been lookin'
at me there." " What was the trouble, sir ?"

" The life was scar'd out o' me, ma'am, and the heart
lept up to the mouth." " And tell us what so frighted
you ?"

" Why, ma'am, I had heard of the old English church
in Galway, that it had images and sich like, to be seen,
and I was goin' by to mass, and see the door open, and
thought it might be no harum to peep in a little. A
soldier was at the door, with a soord, and a divil of a
leg had he under him but critches, and when I had
but just got behind a post, peepin' at a picture in a
dark corner, a man in black bobb'd up before me, his tail
scrapin' the ground behind him, musha me ! I can't tell
how long. I thought it was sartinly the Old Nick,
and I run here, and I run there, but for the life o' me
I darrint run back, for the soldier with the soord was
at the door, and he would strike me, and I could hear
the black man draggin' his long tail after him. I sees
the back door open, and made out into the church-
yard, for d' ye see, I'd ruther be with the dead than
with the livm', and I skulked among the stones till I

CHAP, ix.] CO. OF GALWAY. 175

found a place to dodge out, and right glad was I to get
off with the life in me, and by dad, ye don't find me in
a church again."

This simple-minded man told this story in all since-
rity, nor could he be persuaded but that the sexton, with
his black gown, was the Old Nick sent to frighten him
for entering the church.

November 7th. — A market day in Connaught, and a
great curiosity indeed to a stranger ; because not only
are all sorts of men, women, and children congregated
of the lower caste, but there all sorts of people bring all
sorts of creatures and things with them, in all sorts of
conveyances.

I had an opportunity of seeing this peculiar class
of people in a true light as they are at home, for
where buying and selling are concerned, you see the
man in his real character. " It is nought, it is nought,
says the buyer," while the seller protests it's the finest
and choicest in the kingdom ; and report has said that
a Connaughtman loves money. This being a public
house where I was lodging, it was common plunder
for all. Sack and bags, geese, turkeys, pigs,
asses, horses, and cows, were all brought in, and
lodged in the kitchen, or carried into the yard,
while the owner went out to make fresh purchases.
The landlord was a tetotaler, but the good woman,
more bent on gain, was selling her whiskey without a
license, and many a glass on that rainy market day not
only replenished both the tea-canister and snuff-box of
the seller, but gave a new and a happy zest to the wits of
the buyer. One woman had purchased a pig, and fear-
ing, as she expressed it, the pig was not honest, she
was unwilling to pay her money till she had kept it a
week, to prove its soundness. The man wanted his
money, and the woman would not give it, unless some
one would come forward, and testify to the honesty of
the pig. She appealed to the man of the house ; he
was incorrigible. She insisted, she urged, that he
should be bail. " That I won't do, ma'am, I'll not be
bail for the honesty of the pig."

176 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. ix.

" Well, then, the man should let me have it upon
trial, and I'm as honest a woman as there is in all Gal-
way, and that I can show any day." The clamor grew
louder ; the man was forced to beg pardon for some
rude words he had used, and the woman, after telling
him his pardon was granted, left seven shillings till the
honesty of the pig should be proved, and took her pig,
and departed. It was said that this was all intrigue on
her part, to have the use of her money as long as she
could.

Though not a simpleton did I see among the throng,
yet there was the least semblance of refinement in look
or manner that I had ever seen in any place whatever.
Not one did I see that day which could tempt a desire
for further acquaintance. But the ultimatum of all,
the " head and front of the offending" was the staring.
Their incoherent gibbering never stopped, except when
they suspended all to stare at me. I can bear a com-
mon gaze with common patience, and am ready to
acknowledge that it is natural, and that it is proper to
desire to look at a foreigner when he passes, and to
gratify that desire should not be censured. But here
my case was dreadful, if not awful. I could not get
out ; the house was thronged. One would be pressing
his way through the room to the stable, with a horse,
and pause to take a survey from head to foot. Another
would be tying up a bag, and suddenly stop, and look
me full in the face. A third would let her burden
from her back, minutely examine me, then turn to the
master or mistress, and in Irish make her comments.
In short, if I never was noticed before, this day I was
a distinguished personage. Scarcely a word of English
was spoken through the day, and therefore I could
gather but little, only through my eyes, except by the
woman and her honest pig. She performed in plain
English.

When night arrived, all dispersed. My Connaught-
man, who had entertained me the evening previous,
again called to beg me when I should be in Gal way, to
go in and see that dreadful church where he had been

CHAP, ix.] CO. OP GALWAY. 177

so frightened; "and should ye see the man in black,
then ye'll pity me." He insisted, too, that I should
take him home with me as a servant. " And do ye
think, Micky, the gentlewoman would have ye walkin'
by the side of her ?" said the landlord.

" Oh, no," said Micky, " I would walk behind her,
if I could only see her country." However remote I
might find the peasantry from society, however ignorant
of books, however cunning, or however simple, they all
knew something of America, and all were hoping some
day or other to see it. Their questions would often be
intelligent on the geography of the country, and often
they would make serious blunders, yet all would be
correct in some particulars.*

The noise of the scripture-reading the preceding
evening had gone far and wide, and many called in to
ask the mistress if the kind lady would read again.
This was unexpected, but gladly did I comply. The
poor simple men often exclaimed, " Why did we never
hear this ?" Paddy, the master of the house, could
read well, and was somewhat skilled in debate, and the
Virgin Mary was introduced. I asked him if he
believed the Testament I had in my hand to be true ?
He said, " Yes, every word of it.'' " The last chapter
in that book says, c whosoever adds to it, God shall add
all the plagues, etc.' Now in all that book not an
indirect mention is made of any adoration that must
be made to the Virgin." The wife instantly exclaimed,
" Now, Pat, what have ye to say ? You're sack'd,
you're saek'd, and I'm glad of it." When any one
entered to stop a little, she would repeat it, saying,
"Aw! you could not answer that, my lad." Though
she was still in the church, yet she had read and thought
for herself; and could multitudes of these people be
taken by the hand, and led out from the machinery
with which they are surrounded, they would drink in
with eagerness the Gospel of life. I related to them

* It is not to introduce America in every page that mention is so
often made of it, but to show the peasantry.
8*

178 CO. OP GALWAY. [CHAP, ix,

stories from the Bible which they had never heard ; yet
the story of Calvary was well understood, and they
made a better application of the scriptures they did
know, than do many who read them daily.

Friday. — Early I prepared for a walk of eighteen
miles to Galway. The road was muddy, and there was
quite an appearance of rain. The kind people did all
they could do for my comfort, and asked me two-pence
a night for my lodging. This was the stated price to
all. I was soon joined by a man and his wife, with a
car, riding alternately, which made the journey slow,
and they kindly relieved me of my basket ; and I walked
nine miles with tolerable ease. I was resting upon a
stone when the post-car arrived, and offered to take me
to Galway for a shilling. I paid it, light as was my
purse, and reached the town at two o'clock, with half-
a-crown.

This ancient sea-port is celebrated in history for
many a wonderful tale. It is not an inviting city for
a stranger, on a muddy day ; the suburbs are wretched
in the extreme, and not in all Ireland, Bantry excepted,
can there be found more that is forbidding to the eyes
of strangers. The fishwomen, which are abundant
there, are coarse and ugly in their looks, and none in
all Connaught could exceed them in staring ; and fol-
low me they would, from street to street, from shop to
shop.

I found a comfortable lodging-house in some respects,
and in some it was uncomfortable ; but knowing that
slender purses must not put on airs, I went to the post-
office to ascertain whether a letter were in waiting, but
found none. Sixpence a night for lodging was the
price, and find my own potatoes. I had five sixpences,
and with these I must make my way back to Kilkenny.
I had no fear, for I knew all would be right, and so I
perambulated the town, and saw what I could see,
enjoyed what I could enjoy, and then went home for
the night.

The next morning I walked to the docks, and would
not forget to say, that in Galway I never went alone.

CHAP, ix.] CO. OF GALWAY. 179

A man or two, and perhaps half-a-dozen women, would
be in comfortable staring distance; and this morning,
dreading the repetition of the yesterday's annoyance,
I went early, but a Connaughtman was on the spot,
with pipe and dog ; nor did he leave me, nor did he
speak to me, nor did he cease staring at me, when the
position was a favorable one. The docks have been
built at immense expense, and the unfortunate man
who pledged himself to do the work died with grief at
his misfortunes. A few solitary masts were bowing
gently to the breeze, only mementoes of Ireland's dearth
of commerce. This ancient harbor has been the depot
of many a bloody vessel, laden with instruments of
death and carnage, to lay waste the fair isle ; and many
a startling legend is now related of deeds of darkness
and of murder, which have ever blotted the fame of this
bright gem of the sea.

Overlooking the harbor is the oldest bury ing-ground
in Galway, and it is literally crammed with the dead.
Throughout Ireland, in every large town, there seems
to be some pre-eminent burying-place, which has pecu-
liar virtues, on account of some holy man or men having
honored it by their bones ; and there, while living, the
eye is directed as the most desirable bed in which to
sleep when dead. The opening through a tumbling
wall was free, and thither I repaired, with the Con-
naughtman and dog in pursuit.

" What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide 1"

I was really afflicted ; I had chosen this early hour,
before seven, that I might unmolested enjoy in that
harbor and churchyard a little reflection, where star-
ing eyes would not settle on my face, or smoke of
tobacco penetrate my nose. And like the poor afflicted
man in the church, I " ran here, and I ran there," and
dodged behind the tomb-stones, but could not escape;
he was there, bending over the top, in full gaze upon
me; and could I have spoken Irish, and told who I
was, and what was my errand, as I had, often done,

180 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. ix.

there might have been some hope in my case. I left
the spot in vexation and despair, and he left it too.

I would not join in all the ridicule and censure
which the world has ever been ready to heap on suffer-
ing Connaught. There is good sense, there is wit,
there is benevolence, and there is intelligence too.
Even in many a smoky hut have I sat down, and been
profited as well as amused, by the knowledge they had
acquired, and their manner of communicating it. They
are an inquisitive people. They desire to come at the
whys and the wherefores ; and if defeated in one way,
they will resort to another. I was the strangest anom-
aly that had ever visited them, and as I could not speak
Irish, what could not be gained by talking must be
made out in gaping. Let this serve as an apology,
though it did not lessen my indescribable vexation. I
was in torment "for a' that."

On my return, the market people were assembling,
and my way was so hedged up, that in the fruitless ef-
fort to make a passage out in the right direction, I be-
came so confused that all points of the compass were
alike ; and my only concern was not to lose the little
sense remaining in me. Not a creature would budge,
for they had me in close keeping, and no time should
be lost in making out " the cratur." At length I was
free, and begged of a woman, at the door of her house,
to place me in a right direction. She kindly did so,
and I returned and seated myself over the turf fire in the
corner, to fix on some other peregrination ; and resolved
to make a call on the Presbyterian clergyman located
there, having been told by the gentleman of the house
where I lodged, that he was approachable, and knew
much of the country.

I had no letter of introduction, and felt much more
independent on that account. Knowing that from
humble poverty he had become somewhat affluent by
marriage, and lived in aristocratic style, I knew with
such that the forms of etiquette must be most strictly
regarded, and was careful that strings and pins should
all be in their proper place. The walk was a long one,

CHAP, ix.] CO. OF GALWAY. 181

the road muddy, and the gibbering of all who pre-
tended to direct me in the right course so confused me,
that I was in danger of a return of the morning's mood;
but finally the lodge belonging to the clergyman intro-
duced me to a fine gravel walk leading to the mansion,
and I was soon knocking at his ministerial door. A
young interesting girl opened it. I Banded her my
card, requesting it might be given to Mr. F. She did
so, and soon returned with the card and Mr. F's an-
swer, u Mr. ' says he has nothing to give to day."*
Disgust and indignation struggled a moment, and ele-
vating my voice, so that he might hear, I said u Say
to Mr. F. I did not come to ask charity, but a few
questions, which to me were important." u Tell the
woman she may come in," was the prompt reply. The
woman did go in, and found the man of the pulpit sit-
ting near a table, with a newspaper as large as a small
pocket-handkerchief in his hand, a dandy watch-chain
hanging in dandy manner about his neck, slippers on
his feet, and dress in like accordance.

His wife was much older than her spouse, and what
she lacked in youth and beauty was imperfectly made
up in frippery. Her dress was a crimson colored
satin ; a gold watch was glistening at her side, and pink
ribbons were about her cap, neck, and arms ; but to her
credit be it said, she was sewing. The fact is worth
naming, because it was the first time I had seen in the
country a fashionable lady with plain sewing in her
hands. As I looked upon the inmates of this well-
trimmed parlor, and upon the lord especially that
adorned it, I said, " Can this be a messenger from God,
to announce to a lost world the gospel of truth.

" Lay not careless hands on sculls that cannot
Teach and will not learn.'3

After adjusting himself in speaking attitude, he con-
descended to say, " I will answer any question respect-
ing the state of the churches you may ask." He spoke

* Whether the beggars in Galway carried cards, when they
solicit -alms I did not learn.

182 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. ix.

of the poor as being in a deplorable state, and the wife
said my object was certainly a laudable one, and she
presumed I found the people kind. u So much so,"
was my answer, " that I had sometimes thought it
would be best to keep them so ; for when a few
hundreds were added, I had seen them almost entirely
divested of humanity, if not of common civility." My
good parson found a loop-hole, for he said, u Ah, you
don't know the poor as well as I do ; they are cunning,
and all the kindness they show is to get favors." " Not
so had I found it ;" I could say, " that when they saw
me weary, and I told them my journey must be has-
tened because my money was well nigh spent, then
was the time when they doubled their entreaties to
detain me, without charges." A few months before
this, in the cabins of the poor, this man could be found
reading to them, and kindly administering to their
wants. He was then poor, and employed as a Bible
reader, a and now," said the wife of a curate, " he can
only afford pennies, where he could give shillings at
that time." It was getting late; I talked of muddy
streets, of rain, the difficulty of the way, the many
hours I had been out — all to no purpose ; his pantry
would not unlock, nor did a " cup of cold water" greet
my lips. I left wiser than when I went, and the next
day heard a sermon from this same man on Christian
benevolence, expatiating on its importance, and its
benefits to the soul. His congregation was small, and
part of them were soldiers in military dress, with the
weapons of death standing by their side. Certainly
the Christian church has got a very supple kind of re-
ligion, if these warlike principles can find a shelter in
it.

On my return to my lodgings, I saw a company
of men assembled in a square, and supposed something
new had gathered them ; but drawing nearer, found it
was a collection of poor countrymen from distant parts,
who had come hoping on the morrow to find a little
work. Each man had his spade, and all were standing
in a waiting posture, in silence, hungry and weary ;

CHAP, ix.] CO. OF GALWAY. 183

for many, I was told, had walked fifteen or twenty miles
without eating, nor did they expect to eat that day.
Sixpence a day was all they could get, and they could
not afford food on the Sabbath, when they could not
work. Their dress and their desponding looks told too
well the tale of their sufferings. When I had passed
them, looking about, one was near me, walking slowly,
picking a few shreds carelessly in his fingers, his coun-
tenance such a finished picture of despair, as said, " It
is done; I can do no more." I three times halted, and
paused to speak to him, but could not give utterance ;
as soon as I met his countenance, hunger, wife, children,
and despair were so visible, that I turned away, and
could only say, u Good God ! have mercy on poor
Ireland."

When I reached my lodgings, the landlord remarked,
that every week the poor creatures are coming in from
the country, and often they stay two days without eat-
ing, watching and hoping a chance may come ; and sleep
where they can ; and then most of them go away, with-
out getting any work. " Go to now, ye rich men, weep
and howl."

My lodgings should not pass entirely unnoticed. In
all lodging-houses I had found that a single room was
an extra privilege scarcely to be expected ; and often
the man, woman, and children would be fixed in the
same apartment, with one or two transient lodgers, as
the case might be. This is not so in hotels. In this
house, the apartments looked tidy ; and I was shown to
a chamber where were two curtained beds ; one of these
I was to occupy. Before retiring, the woman said, " I
shall sleep down stairs, the child is sick, and nobody
will be in your room but John." "Who is John ?'' I
asked. " My old man," was the reply. " Your old
man ! Be assured, madam, I shall be your company
down here then." " That you don't ; you shall have a
good bed, and room where you can rest." The matter
was settled by telling her in plain English I would not
go into the chamber. As a penance, I was put into a
confined room, with her mother and sick boy across the

184 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. ix.

foot of my bed, bolstered and tucked against the wall,
so that there was no danger of falling out or off. The
poor old mother was dying with the asthma, keeping up
almost a continued cough, and could not lie down ; and
when she was not coughing, her unearthly breathing so
frightened me, fearing she was in death-agonies, I kept
calling, " Woman, woman !" (for I did not know her
name). When she was coughing, she could not sleep ;
and when she slept, I could not wake her. Nothing
but the cough could do it. Thus two doleful nights I
kept my eyes waking, not conscious that I slept at
all ; the third night I slept a little from downright ne-
cessity. But complaining was out of the question ;
there was an empty bed, and the wife seemed glad to
punish me for casting contempt on as good and as quiet
a man as there was in all Galway.

Monday, at two o'clock, finding my letters had not
arrived, and that three nights had made quite an inroad
into my half-crown, I saw that a walk to Urlingford was
the only alternative. The kind woman urged me to
stay another night, and when I told her my money was
nearly spent, she invited me to stop free from charge ; I
did not, and the mud and clay made me almost regret
that I had refused.

A young student from Dublin, who was lodging in
the same house, accompanied me two miles out of the
dreadful suburbs of that city, which for filth and wretch-
edness exceeded all I had seen. I could do no more than
look in, for an attempt to wade through would be next
to perilous. When the young man returned me my
basket, he said, " You will reach Oranmore by dark,
if you hasten (a distance of two miles and a half), and
possibly I may see you in Dublin." I had no alterna-
tive but to nerve myself for what was before me. Oran-
more I had never seen ; I might not reach it till dark ;
and then a lodging! this was the most to be dreaded of
all. On I went, sometimes leaving a shoe in the clay,
and never finding a dry spot for my feet, till at sunset
the little town was reached. Two applications for
lodgings were refused, both full; the third one rcceiv-

CHAP, ix.] CO. OF GALWAY. 185

ed me. But when I asked, " Will you give me a clean
bed?"

" I had rather have two men than one woman," was
the answer; "two men will sleep together, and make no
fuss; but women are always finding fault."

"True," I said, "we always find it so in New
York."

u New York ! have you lived in New York ? I too
was there six years, and wish 1 was back again ; but
my husband was homesick, and would not stay."

Everything was now reversed; she thanked God for
bringing me, telling me I might stay in welcome as
long as I would. She took me into a snug room, and
said, u See ! I keep my beds as they do in New York ;
make them up nicely, and leave off the sheets till a
lodger comes, and then give him coarse or fine, flannel
or linen, as he may choose, and you may have which
you like." This was turning the picture indeed.
Pat came in, and made me as welcome ; and we talked
of New York to our heart's content. " I was a fool,"
said Pat, " that 1 came away."

She lived with a clergyman's family, though she was
married before leaving Ireland, and Pat was employed
elsewhere. They had not been idle or improvident,
but saved considerable, and returned to spend it in their
own country. They kept a shop and lodgers, and had
many little comforts which are not common in Ireland.
This was truly a pleasant evening to me, and the next
day rain kept me there, much apparently to the gratifi-
cation of the kind creature. I told her what a fearful
purse I carried ; " and I'd not empty it of a farthing, if
you had a million."

Reader, wonder not that I love the peasantry of Ire-
land. Imagine yourself in my real condition and state
of mind when I entered that house, and then meet the
same kind, unmerited, unexpected reception from those
for whom you had done nothing, and feel yourself
changed into a friend, instead of a stranger and a lodger.
We talked and read till a late hour, and then I slept
undisturbed.

186 CO. OP GALWAY. [CHAP. ix.

The reader may be told, if he never heard it whis-

Eered, that the Irish as a people have a quantum of
iisure on their hands. The cabin housewife has done
her morning's toil, when the potato is eaten and the
pigs and fowl have been fed ; no making of bread, no
scouring of brass and silver, no scrubbing of floors,
or cleaning of paint, makes her toil heavy ; and in a
few weeks' travel I found that, when I stopped in a vil-
lage for the night, and wished to make the most of my
visit, nothing was necessary but to call at some cabin,
tell them I was an American, and had come to see
the poor, and ask them to direct me to a good lodging
house. This was electricity itself ; all and everything
that could be done would be, and by the time the
lodging house was found, the fame had reached through
the little hamlet, and a levee was on the spot in a few
minutes. So in Oranmore ; but the good woman of
the house, putting on some of her American notions
of propriety, insisted that I should not be " gaped to
death," and often told them in sober earnest, that they
must keep away, unless they had some business to the
shop. All was unavailing. Night and day they were
squatting about me, admiring my comely dress and
comely hair, telling me that my face was young, and
many a good day was before me yet ; and seldom did
they leave, till they made me both young and beauti-
ful, with the best of all appendages added, a heavy
purse of money. Here I talked and here I listened,
here I read and they listened, and the little village
of Oranmore will always be held in pleasant remem-
brance.

•But, kind reader, no bliss is perfect, and here in
this happy group was one which, when I looked and
while 1 write, was and is an object of painful, pitiful,
and ludicrous contemplation. It was a mountain Con-
nemara girl. I found that the district of Connemara,
through all Ireland, was considered as a distinct item
altogether. This people are pointed out to strangers
as the Americans would point you to the wildest tribes
of their Indians. Here is one before us, and though

CHAP, ix.] CO. OF GALWAY. 187

faintly described, yet what is drawn is as near the
truth itself as my skill and pencilling can make it. She
was in this lodging house to take the charge of a sick
boy who had come there for a season. She was dressed
in red flannel, the costume of all the mountain peasant-
ry of that country, and this color, they tell you, is cho-
sen to keep away the fairies. Leaving the dress, we will
look at the person. She was tall, thick-set, had broad
shoulders, high cheek bones, small eyes, and near toge-
ther ; black coarse hair, cut square upon a low forehead,
and body and limbs of huge dimensions. Two broadly-
spread feet, which had never been cramped by cloth or
leather, told you that they had braved every hardship
incident to feet in any climate or nation. These pedes-
tals were surmounted by two pillars, which wanted nei-
ther strength nor size ; and when she moved, it was al-
ways with a grace peculiar to herself, and when she sat
down, it was always upon the floor. This flannel dress
was cut after the same model of all her countrywomen's,
being a jacket pinned closely about her ; a petticoat not
so long by some twelve inches as modern custom sanc-
tions ; and beside it had undergone great changes since
it left the loom, for wear and tear had fringed and frill-
ed it, and though it legally Belonged to the jacket, yet
its binding was reaching up two inches below it. Thus,
cap-a-pie, dress and symmetry, she made out such a fig-
ure as the tenderest heart might encounter without fear
of being broken.

She had another qualification, viz. that of singing:
this was always performed in Irish, and with tones and
gestures which made every auditor feel to the bottom of
his soul. I had often heard her, and one day had a cu-
riosity to look into the kitchen where she was at work,
to see her unperceived when singing ; and imprudently
laughed, not in ridicule, but because it was wholly una-
voidable ; she heard, and would never sing again. No
apologies on my part, and no entreaties of the mistress
could ever prevail.

u She dispraises me," was the answer. She would
never eat, but sitting upon the floor with both elbows

188 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. ix.

upon her knees, and the potato between both hands,
taking the " bit" without putting the potato down,
gnawing it until it all was finished ; then she would take
the usup," and raise another potato to her lips,
and go on.

I could never look on this strange excrescence without
wonder, and asking on what commission could she have
been sent into a world like this. But I should do great
injustice, yes, I should sin, should I leave the picture
here. I should be holding up to ridicule a being of God,
who may have more favor in his eyes than the writer ;
and though this is not a caricature but a true picture,
yet there is another side to it, and I would be guilty,
like Ananias, of keeping back a part of the price, should
I not show it.

Ireland, above all nations of the earth, has suffered
most in her character by the ignorant and too often
malicious injustice of writers, who were either awed by
the opinion of others, or incapable of discrimination
themselves. They have caught her fairy tales, they
have gathered up her blunders, they have poetically
told of her " gems of the mountains and pearls of the
ocean," they have laughed at her tatters ; but who has
lifted these tatters, and sbaown to the world that under
them is buried every noble principle that could elevate
a people ? Yes, the poor cringing laborer, touching his
hat to the haughty lord, who never looked manfully in
the face of him he served, has a soul burning within him
capable of all that is praiseworthy, of all that is god-
like. And would justice be allowed to lift her voice in
his behalf, that soul would look out, and speak, u I,
too, am a man." Yes, the poor Irishman has a mind
that can and does think ; but, like the American
slave, he is told by his master, and he is told by all
the world, " You do the working and I'll do the
thinking."

I must return to my Connemara woman, and say she
possessed the greatest kindness of heart, and felt the
least attention given to her as the highest favor. She
was unobtrusive, and shrunk from the least rebuke

CHAP, x.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 189

iri look or word, though without the least appearance of
anger. She would watch to do some little favor to the
mistress or me, and to do it in the most quiet and unas-
suming manner. When I left, and offered her my hand,
she hesitated, looked at the mistress, then at me, and
from a kind of wild smile she settled into a seriousness
that seemed to say, that she thought herself an outcast,
unworthy the notice of any. Her every look and action
indicated that she felt she was an exile from all the
world, and must ever remain so. She was faithful and
trustworthy to the last degree, and had she been born
on any mountain but a Connemara one, she might have
escaped the imputation of being the ugliest and most
awkward woman in Ireland.

CHAPTER X.

Walk to Loughrea— Thoughts of Home— A New Day— A Fellow Traveller
— Cabin Theology — Such a Bed ! — Eyre-Court — Hearty Welcome in Ba-
nagher — An Anxious Mother — A Noble-hearted Daughter — Incursionof a
Troop of Connaughtmcn into an Inn, and how they behaved themselves —
Visit to Mr. S. — Rejection — Christian kindness of Poor Mary and her Bro-
ther.

THE time to go arrived, and at ten o'clock the sun
looked out, and 1 promised my urgent friend, should
the clayey road be impassable, I would return and
spend another night ; and though for four Irish miles I
was literally sticking in clay, I kept on, hoping the
road would improve, and stopping when I could walk
no longer, and feeling I must not and could not go
back ; and at last a man with a team overtook me, say-
ing, " God save ye kindly, lady, and the mountain is a
long one, and will ye put the basket on the load ?" He
kept my company for some miles, and then stopped to
feed his horses, and gave me my basket ; which, to my
weary feet, already blistered, seemed to be almost an
insupportable clog, and much more so, as night was

190 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. x.

gathering, the mountains were wild and barren, the ca-
bins, like angels' visits,

" Few and far between,"

And five miles long and dreary I walked, and met not
a living moving being, nor could I find a stone or stick
where I could sit down, and stand still or walk on I
must. I wished to reach Loughrea if possible, and
hurried on till my strength gave way ; a welcome stone
by the side of a wall met my eye ; I sat down, leaning
my back against the wall, and looked across the Atlan-
tic. I there saw cheerful fires lighted ; I saw friends
gathered around them ; I heard them say, " I wish I
could see what Mrs. N. is doing to-night. By this
time she believes we told her the truth, when we ad-
vised her to stay at home, and keep out of difficulties
which she must unavoidably meet in a land of ignorant,
reckless strangers. Pity she could not find Irish
enough in New York to keep her busy, without going
to that land of darkness. Well ! she always would have
her own way, and she must abide the consequence." I
saw too my own once happy parlor lighted, and the
books gathered for the QK£ping : an(i did I wish to draw
around the table, and participate in the enjoyment ?
I did not. No, I did not. Should I sleep the sleep of
death, with my head pillowed against this wall, no
matter. Let the passer-by inscribe my epitaph upon
this stone, fanatic, what then ? It shall only be a
memento that one in a foreign land loved and pitied
Ireland, and did what she could to seek out its condi-
tion.

It was now dark. A heavy fog and mist were
gathering fast, and I could scarcely discern the earth
from the sky. A man passed. u Will you tell me, sir,
how far it is to Loughrea ?" u Two miles and a half."
u Then I must stop by this wall for the night. I can-
not go further." " Not a word of lyin'," was my
only consolation from the man, and he passed on. I
arose, and made an effort to walk. Another man

CHAP, x.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 191

passed. The same interrogation was now answered
by, " A mile and a quarter." This was gaining rap-
idly without walking a yard, and passing on a little, I
made the same inquiry, and was answered, " A short
mile, ma'am." I was confused, and knew not whom to
believe ; but was so willing to be deceived, that by
limping and halting, wading, and inquiring of all I met,
I at last reached the twinkling lights of the suburbs of
the town.

The kind voice of the woman where I lodged on the
journey down, was music to my ear, and Pat was
called to participate in the joy. u And what shall
we do for ye, the cratur !" A long box was in the
room. I flung myself upon it, and for an hour, amidst
the repeated questions, " What shall we do, and what
can ye ate ? Ye'r destroyed, and the heart's gone
out o' ye," I kept my position, really fearing it was
over with me, and my walking was ended. I had
walked eighteen Irish miles, in clay, and over tedious
mountains, since ten o'clock. My situation was not the
most flattering. I was among a people, though kind,
who could not appreciate the object of my visit to Ire-
land. They were poor and needed every penny which
belonged to them. I was a stranger, and had been
accustomed to better accoralBaations than they could
afford, had been disappointed in getting my money,
and could not reward them for extra attentions. The
lumbago, which for many months had made me a crip-
ple in New York, now threatened a visit, and the sum
total was not the most pleasant. Did I despond ? No !
my philosophy and my religion (if I had any) came to
ruy aid ; and the question, Of what use is your religion,
if it will not sustain you in a time of need ? brought me
to my feet. In the passing of this hour on the box, I
was not alone. The intelligence had reached many a
cabin, that the u plain-discoorsed and the beautiful
reader" had returned, and they hastened to bid her
welcome. Seeing me in this dilemma, the rejoicing
was turned to mourning, and the u cup of tay, the cup
of tay, was all that could refresh her, the cratur." I

192 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. x.

took a cup of cocoa, bathed my feet, and reluctantly
said good night, being too much fatigued to read to
them. But I gave them my hand, and from my heart
did I pray that God would emancipate poor neglected
Connaught.

My bed-room and appurtenances were not in the
most tempting fix. A dirty chaff bed, with a pile of
potatoes at the head of it, and the servant across the
foot said, " Here you are." I passively committed
myself to the care of Him whose aid I certainly needed,
and whose watchfulness, I felt, had ever been my only
support.

I slept, awoke, and was greatly refreshed ; and
though I had taken but a few ounces of food since
nine the previous day, I felt not the want of any.
The weather had changed a little for the better, and
at eleven o'clock I took my last shilling, paid my fare,
and with blessing upon blessing on my head from the
family and cabiners, I left the muddy, miserable looking
town of Loughrea, escorted by no insignificant number
to set me right.

" Rare are solitary woes ; they love a train,
They tread each other's heels."

The pleasant change m^Rurned to a heavy cold mist,
and a strong wind was blowing full in my face. The
road was a complete bed of clay, but how could I go
back, and how could I stay there ? The way was quite
lonely. Now and then a solitary cabin, with its duck-
pond and manure-heap in front, hung out the sad in-
signias of desolation and filth within. I sat down upon
a stone — yes, a stone. Ah ! how many times have I
in Ireland realised the literal import of " The shadow
of a great rock in a weary land." My basket was
heavy to my weary feet, when suddenly stood before
me a clean barefooted woman, with neither bonnet,
shawl, or cloak, saying, u God save ye kindly, lady;
ye look wairy. Shall I take your basket a bit ?"

O that sweet voice ! I shall never forget it. Sorrow
had mellowed it, for she had passed lately under the

CHAP.X.J CO. OF GAL WAY. 193

merciless hand of oppression. a And how far may ye
be walkin' ? I am on this way a bit, and will lighten
the burden of your feet a little. I'm sorry to see so
dacent a body walkin'. The likes of me are used to it."
I felt interested to know her history, and inquired if
she had a family. " No, thanks be to God, they're all
dead but one little gal, and if Almighty God will
spare her to me, it's all I'll ask of him." u Have you
a house r" " No, praise God, when my husband died,
the landlord hunted me from the cabin the night he
was put in the ground." " And where did you find a
shelter ?" " Praise God, a poor widow, seeing my dis-
tress, took me in, and I get my bit as 1 can. The
child is sick, and I've been to Loughrea this mornin'
for a little medicine, and a morsel didn't cross my lips
since yesterday." We were then seven miles from
Loughrea, making fourteen that this barefooted, cloak-
less woman had walked, and it was now nearly three
o'clock.

Two miles we walked and talked together, and many
a judicious hint did I gather, many a little unmeaning
disclosure of the sufferings of the poor by the oppres-
sion of their masters, and many a fulfillment of the
promise of God to the widow, in the unexpected helps
she received when desponding. We reached the muddy
lane that led to the cabin, she returned me the basket,
and for the first time since in Ireland I felt a rising
murmur that I could not wipe the tear from the eye
of the widow, by giving this one what would have been
a little token of my kind feelings, and made her at least
a comfortable breakfast. " 1 would not take it from a
lone stranger like you," was the answer, when I told her
my condition. How many hearts like these are aching
in Ireland, and how unheeded do their sorrows fall on
the public ear !

Alone I hurried on over the solitary way, the most
desolate of any I had travelled. There seemed to be
nothing on which man or beast could comfortably
subsist ; and no shop, where a mouthful of bread could
be procured, greeted my eye. I had taken but a haif-
9

194 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP.X.

penny roll in the morning, and began to desire a little
food. Night came on, and unexpectedly I found myself
in a muddy little village, and inquired for lodgings ;
was refused at first by two, and almost despaired ; but
a little girl introduced me to a house, which, if it had
no comforts, had yet some novelties, and I had an
interesting evening with the most ignorant people I
had met, yet not deficient in Irish cleverness. The
woman said shexhad no place but one, and that was
filled with oats, which had not been threshed, but two
very genteel ladies lodged there the preceding night.
Oats are certainly clean dirt, and if genteel ladies had
slept there, I assured the good woman I would not be
squeamish, if she would give me a clean bed. But,
kind readers, your eyes never saw that bed ! Now all
preliminaries were settled, and my " dacent clothes and
proper discoorse" told that I had -been well bred and
born, and must have u a great dale of money in my
purse." I then had just nine-pence, and was fifty miles
from my place of destination.

The potatoes were boiling, and when poured upon
the table, the mistress selected three of the finest and
fairest, and flung them into my lap. This was the
thing needed, for I had concluded to go to bed supper-
less, as I could do better without eating than sleeping.
A neighboring woman was called in, and when she
fouud that I was u so high born, that my accent was
so plain, and that I could discoorse so beautifully,"
she was delighted. Pausing a moment, she abruptly
said, u And do ye give in to the blessed Vairgin ?"
^ . " Aw !" said the other, " what's the use in talkin' ?
you can't confete with her." [I leave the reader, if he
have an Irish dictionary, to interpret the technicals of
the language.] Answering her, that I believed the
Virgin was a good woman, and that she is now in hea-
ven, but the Bible had never told me to worship her.
" The Bible, the Bible ! the Church says so, and that's
enough."

* u But God says, c whoever adds to that book, he
will add unto him all the plagues written therein,' " &c.

CHAP, x.] CO. OF GALWAY. 195

" There ! there ! I told ye so — I told ye, ye could'nt
confete with jier.'* Pat now entered, and hearing of my
heresy, " Ye're wrong — ye 're wrong."' " There now,
ye've got your match in Pat" answered the exulting
wife. Pat told me that, " whatever I might plase to
ask of the blessed Vairgin, if I asked in sincerity, I
should be sure to have it, for she had more power in
heaven than every saint there."

I begged the talented Pat, if he had nothing to do
but ask any favor and it would be granted, to apply im-
mediately, and have her remove them out of their pov-
erty and filth, and give them their rights as a na-
tion.

" There — there, Pat, ye may stop your discoorse.
There now, ye can't confete with her, and I told ye so
in the beginnin'."

" And did ye say ye don't drink the tay ? Ye're the
first dacent woman that's born and bred among dacent
people that don't do that."*

u Aw !" answered the visiting woman, u there's no
use in talkin'. She hasn't got sinse ; that 1 see afore,
poor thing ! she'd never left so fine a country to be
walkin' in this, if she'd the right sinse. Aw ! she's
crack'd."

I certainly admired the result of the kind woman's
observation, and told her hundreds in Ireland, of better
learning than she, had thought the same. " Give her
the bed, the thing !" she said to the mistress as she went
out ; " she's wairy."

Now what could have been better ? These ignorant,
knowing people, when they had come to the conclusion
of ray lack of sense, or aberration of mind, took no
advantage, but used more lenity ; for though I had
spoken lightly, as they thought, of the Blessed Virgin,
and dishonored their holy faith, yet they imputed

* Tea drinking is a mania in Ireland. This woman boiled
some in a pint cup, and supped it with her potato without milk or
sugar.

196 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. x.

this to " a lack of sinse," of which my rejection of the
tay, and laivin' my fine country, were abundant proofs.

The room was now shown me. The pile of straw,
which reached nearly to the upper floor, so filled the
passage to the bed, that I made my way with some diffi-
culty, and the first fair and full glance of the bedding,
by the light of a candle, so filled my eyes, that I extin-
guished the light instantly. I knew that a second look
would keep me out of it, and rest I much needed.

And here I gave some proof of the truth of the wo-
man's assertion, that I u had not the sinse," for why
did I not lie down upon the clean straw ? I spread a
pocket-handkerchief upon the bolster, and managed as
well as I could to forget where 1 was, and what might
be about me.

The morning dawned ; I heard a great pushing at a
back-door, which led from my r.oora to the yard,

" The door wide open flew,"

In walked a majestic pig, weighing three hundred, and
moving towards my bed, elevated his nose, and gave
me a hearty salute. I said " Good morning, sir," and
he turned to the oaten straw and made himself busy,
till the mistress entered, and I asked her if she would
do me the favor to lead out my companion. She
heeded it not, but walked away. In a few moments
she returned, and a little more entreatingly I said,
" Madam, will you be so good as to take out this pig ?"
She was angry at my repeated solicitations, but finally
took away the domestic with her into the kitchen, with
a mutter, " what harrum ?" and violently shut the
door. Seven times was the door from the kitchen
opened, admitting to my apartment either the master
or mistress, before I had an opportunity of making my
toilette.

The room had neither window nor crack, but my
sense of feeling had become so acute, that I managed
very well without seeing, and made my ingress to
the kitchen, and asked for my bill. Two-pence for

CHAP.X.] CO. OF GALWAY. 197

three potatoes and a night's lodging. I paid it cheer-
fully, which left me seven -pence ; and bidding good
morning to the mistress, who manifested quite a shyness,
I hurried out, for she evidently thought me "wild," and
wished me away.

After walking four miles on a tolerable road, I
bought a halfpenny roll, and hurried on quite happily
with sixpence and halfpenny, which would buy me
another roll on the morrow for my breakfast. This
was not the most sumptuous fare, but it was so sweet-
ened with the pure breath of heaven that was fanning
my lungs, the sun shone so pleasantly, the lark sung
so sweetly, and the poor peasants spoke so kindly, that
I actually felt that I should never be happier this side
the gates of the heavenly city. I could not think of a
single thing needed but what was in my possession. I
was not hungry, I was not naked, I did not wish a
carriage ; and I felt that all earth, air, and skies were
mine. I had suffered hardships that few in my condi-
tion could have endured ; but I was receiving the
legacy that was left me eighteen hundred years ago,
that, through much tribulation, all who will follow
Christ must enter the kingdom. I was happy, I knew
in whom I trusted, and heartily did I say, u What lack
I yet?"

I reached a beautiful little place called Eyrecourt,
toasted my piece of bread, and went on at two o'clock
to walk five miles to Banagher. The road was quite
muddy, and my feet were now blistered. I was obliged
to wear coarse shoes, and my feet, never having been
accustomed to them, were tender. Darkness overtook
me, and the way became quite difficult. I inquired of
all I met the distance to the bridge, and the distance
to the town ; and the way lengthened in proportion as
I passed on, till I found myself upon the bridge ; and
meeting a woman, she led me to a lodging-house, which
she assured me was as " clane and dacent as I could
find in a day's walk.''

This lodging-house in Banagher has associations
which will live in grateful remembrance while memory

198 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP.X.

lasts. Did they say, when I entered wet and weary,
(for I had walked for hours in a heavy rain) did they
say, " Who is this strange woman, at this late hour
asking for lodgings; she must be mad ?" but " Come
in, come in, ye're wet and wairy. How far have ye
walked in the stawrm ? Come into the kitchen and dry
yer clothes, and ye must be a stranger, and we'll get
ye the cup of tay ; ye must be hungry." All this was
said and more, before I had told them who I was, and
what brought me there. When this was known, if
possible the kindness was redoubled. I told them I
had but sixpence-halfpenny in my purse, and could
only get a night's lodging and two or three potatoes.
" And that you will get ; and a week's lodgin' in welcome.
Not a hap'orth of them two crippled feet shall go out
of my house till they're healed," answered the man.
The servant was called to fetch water to bathe my feet,
" and we'll do what we can for ye, the cratur !" And
faithfully did they perform their promise ; they were
kind to a fault. They were Catholics, but they listened
to the Word of Life with the most profound attention,
and without any opposition. They told their neigh-
bors they fully believed I was inspired of God to
come to Ireland, and do them good. What was this
good ? Certainly not money, and this they well knew.

They gathered about me in the evening .in crowds ;
and when I had read two hours, such a breathless silence
was in the room, that I looked about to ascertain whe-
ther all who were behind me had not left it, when I
saw the place was filled to crowding, sitting upon the
floor ; and so quietly had they entered that I knew it
not. Till one o'clock I read, a peasant woman, sitting
at my feet, holding a candle ; and when I said, u you
must be tired," " And that I ain't, the long night
wouldn't tire me, to be listenin' to ye."

" Ain't she a Protestant ? an old man whispered.
u She's a Christian sent here to discoorse us, and do
ye think the like of her would crass the ocean to see
the poor, and discoorse 'em as she does, if God hadn't
sent her ?" The old man seemed satisfied, and the

CHAP, x.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 199

point was settled by " Aw! there's no use in talkin'.
The like of her couldn't be found in all Ireland." This
last was said audibly, while I was turning the leaves
of my book for a new chapter.

Among this group was a peculiarly interesting wo-
man of forty-five, who had been the mother of twelve
children. Six of them, she said, had " gone innocently
to heaven." She was endowed with good talents, had
been well bred, and was quite engaging in her manner.
But the desire she manifested for her children, their
education, and their eternal good, almost exceeded
belief. She raised her hands, her full grey eyes glis-
tening with tears, and said, " Can you, will you tell
me how I can get to your country, where I can place
my children under a good and virtuous influence, and
where they will be taught the way to heaven as they
should be ? We are here in darkness, darkness ! Our
clergy are good for nothing ; they go to the altar, and
say mass, but they preach no sermons. They give no
other instructions, and who is any better ? We have
schools, where they learn more that is bad than is
good. I go to bed at night, and I pray, pray. I wake
up, and do the same, and here I am. Will you talk to
my husband, and tell him what privileges you have in
America. I can do nothing with him ; he does not feel
the accountability of training the children, as I do, and
could I persuade him to go from this dreadful place, I
would work night and day, not for myself, but for my
children." I heard her through, and said, " You say
you are all in darkness, and 1 say to you, Christ and
his word can give you light. Believe me, you must read
the Bible ; your children must read the Bible ; or they
never can reach those high attainments which you so
greatly desire. There is a science in that Book of
books that can be found no where else, and this science
cannot be taught except by the Holy Spirit." " Is it
so?" she eagerly said "Have you a Bible?" I in-
quired. "No; we have never had one." The mis-
tress then remarked, " There are but two Catholic
families in all Banagherthat have a Bible." " Well you

200 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP.X.

may be in darkness, if you have not the chart that God
has given to guide you to heaven." The company now
dispersed, when she entreated again. " Do say what
you can to my husband. He may listen to you."
u That woman," said one, when she had gone, " has
always been goin' on in this way. Her children, she
says, are goin' wrong, and her husband cares nothin'
about it."

A little clean, curly-headed girl called the next day,
the youngest of this doating, anxious mother, and led
me round the corner to show me her home.

" Welcome," said the mother ; " you find me in this
dirty cabin, where the pig and the shoemaker's bench
are always with me. I live in wretchedness ; I was
not so rair'd. But my husband will have it so ; he is
a passionate man ; but it was a runaway match ; and
though he often beats me, yet I am fond of him still.
Forgive me for making so free with a stranger, but
these dear, dear children ; my heart is burning up ; it
is scalded for them, and I cannot get rid of it. We
are not poor, though we live here in this humble cabin
with pigs. I can spin, weave, and make all kinds of
cloth." She then went up a ladder, and brought down
two nice specimens of worsted and flannel cloths,
which she had manufactured. " And could any such
work as this do any good in America for my children ?
I believe," she added, " Almighty God has put this in
my heart, and what shall I do at the day of judgment
when I meet my children ?" I listened to this woman
with the full conviction that the Spirit of God had
enlightened her, and would yet bring her further out
of darkness into his marvellous light.

I went to church, and found a small congregation ;
but so engrossed was my mind with the sermon I had
heard from the woman, that I was but little improved
by what I heard there.

The evening introduced me to a family, where I
was invited by the father to see a daughter of seventeen
years of age, who had three weeks before had a leg
amputated. She was sitting upon the bed, and looked

CHAP, x.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 201

to me uncommonly interesting. She was handsome,
becomingly dre?sed, and received me with a dignified
cheerfulness that would have suited maturer age and
higher education. She was mistress of the tidy cabin ;
her mother was dead, and she was the eldest of a pretty
group of cleanly dressed children, who looked to her
as their guide. When I spoke of her misfortunes, she
cheerfully answered, " I must submit to what the Al-
mighty puts upon me." I went away, and was told
more fully the cause of this sad misfortune, of which no
mention was made by the family.

The father had a mill of some kind, and was in the
habit of taking his dinner in it. This daughter had
prepared it, and carried it to the mill ; but it was later
than the usual hour. The father was angry at the
delay, and lifted his hand to strike the faithful child.
She, to avoid the blow, stepped aside ; her dress caught
in the wheel, and her leg was torn nearly off. This
family discipline needs no comment. The cheerful
girl, it is said, has never been heard to reproach the
father.

When I returned from this cabin, a new era opened.
A company of Connaughtmen, in rags and dirt, re-
turning from their potatoe digging in the county of
Kilkenny, had turned in hither for the night. They
wanted a pot of potatoes ; they wanted them cheap,
and they wanted them in " good speed." All this
could not be accomplished without some bustle, and
the good man offered the potatoes for two pence half-
penny a stone. That, they, in plain language, declared
they would not pay. This took some time to settle, and
ended by their going out and purchasing the article
elsewhere. This adjusted, then came the lodging.
They must be up at two, to pursue their journey ;
they must lodge in one room ; and this room must be
the one occupied by me, as no other was of sufficient
length and breadth. I cheerfully relinquished all
claim, as I was but a guest, and the floor was spread
with et ceteras for the lodgers to lie down. The cla-
mor and clatter which commenced and continued Were
9*

202 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. x.

somewhat peculiar to themselves. I had quietly put
my Polka coat upon a chair in the kitchen for a pillow,
and with a second chair managed to make myself a
bed ; and as this bed, like the other, was gratis, I had
no right to complain. The peat fire was dimly burn-
ing at twelve o'clock, when the master came in, and
hearing the tumultuous jabbering, and feeling the
house to be shaking to the centre, he ran up stairs,
telling them to be off, every blackguard of 'em, as it
was two o'clock, and not a minute more should they stop
in his house, disgracin' the devil himself. They declared
they had paid for lodging till two o'clock, and they had
not slept a ha'porth. He drove them up, and they
tumbled down stairs to the kitchen. I had placed
myself in an upright position, and was in a corner.
They, as if by consent, all stopped short in a semicircle
about me, and in perfect silence surveyed me atten-
tively, and my condition for a few moments was not an
enviable one.

There were nine of these nondescripts, not one of
them with a whole garment or a clean face, standing in
array. The room was nearly dark, and the master not
in it. I seriously thought of my sixpence-half-penny,
but before having time to offer it, the good man of the
house entered, and poured them out of the house at
once. They had the kindness to give the man a timely
caution when they were on his steps, for they told him
seriously that the stranger in his house was a man in
disguise, and that he had come to do some great mis-
chief in the country, and they had not a hap'orth of a
doubt but that he had hapes of sovereigns. He added,
" Some of the blackguards would not hesitate to take
your life, should they meet you alone."

These men certainly are distinct in their appearance
from the provinces of Ulster, Munster, or Leinster.
Yet I should not feel authorised to say that they are
more malicious or dangerous than their neighbors.
They are more coarse in appearance and manners ; but
they do not lack either shrewdness or hospitality. In
justice I must say, I have experienced more real kind-

CHAP.X.] KING'S COUNTY. 203

ness from these people, than from many of more refined
education and fashionable appendages.

Reader, if you are prone to be incredulous ; if you
are but a nominal Christian ; if you know not how to
believe in God without doubting ; if you cannot trust
him with your body as well as your soul ; if you are not
willing to deny yourself, and never have done it, and
if you do not believe in "particular providences," in
particular exigencies, you may as well lay down this
book, — :at least pass over a few succeeding days, for
they will appear like fairy tales, and the teller of them
as a silly if not wicked impostor.

Monday. — These Banagher friends wished me " God
speed," without \aking a farthing, and told me their
house should be welcome as long as I would stay.
Others in the town did the same ; but the time had
come; new things were before me, and these new things
I must meet.

In a few hours I found myself in Birr, dining with
Mr. Walsh, and he insisted that I should go that even-
ing to visit the good Mr. S. at whose castle I was so
kindly entertained by his housekeeper, and should find
him there, as he had just left Birr, with a lady in his
carriage for his home. "In him," he added, "you
will see the Christian in a new and striking light. Go,
I beg you ; it will refresh you on your journey, and
you will have it to say, when you return to your coun-
try, that in Ireland you found one rich man who lived
wholly to God, and to serve his fellow-creatures." I
went. At the lodge I was told he had left for Rath-
more, where he had another castle, and, added the
good woman, " It is but five miles. The road is good,
you are quick on the fut, and it would be well nigh
worth a voyage across the Atlantic, to hear the lady
who is in his house discoorse on the subject of reli-
gion."

It was now sun-set, and clouds were gathering. I
hesitated, " Go, in the name of the Lord, and he will
receive you kindly," setting me on the path, she bid
me " God speed." Darkness, rain, and tempest soon

204 KING'S COUNTY. [CHAP.X.

overtook me ; the way was quite dreary, and I much
feared I should lose my path, and I felt that the errand
was quite an uncertain one. It was a sad night ; a
small parasol was a miserable defence against the furi-
ous wind and pelting rain ; and yet I felt more com-
posed and less shrinking than I do now, while writing
it. I had not the least anxiety. I neither knew nor
cared what was before me. I saw a faint light in a
cabin-window, some perches from the road, and felt
my way to it, and inquired the distance to the castle.
UA short half mile; but ye'll be destroyed in the
staurm. Ye had better stop a bit." Telling them I
must go on, they stood in the cabin-door till I had
reached the path, and as well as I ctmld, I made my
way forward.

The darkness was so total, that a beast could not be
distinguished from a man on the path, and in a few
moments I heard walking behind me. I turned about,
but could not tell what it was. u The staurm is heavy
and the night dark on ye, and I'll show ye to the
castle." This was a young man from the cabin I had
just left. I thanked him sincerely, and said, " It is a
great blessing to have so good a landlord as Mr. S.
one who gives so much to the poor." " A divil of a
hap'orth will he give, only to sich as are of his reli-
gion.'' a I have heard he often puts his hand into his
pocket, and hands a poor man a pound he may meet on
the way." " And I hope ye'll meet the pounds when
ye get into the castle, but we'll turn into a cabin here,
to a man who keeps the gate, and he'll go with us."

We turned into this cabin, and here found William
and Mary, a brother and sister advanced in life, who,
as Mary said, had been " bred, born, and raired on the
ground, and knew the father and mother of this good
man ; and he will like to discoorse with sich a nice
body as ye are, a fine bidable woman ; and if ye love
the poor, he'll be glad to see ye ; and ye should stop
with me through the rain to-night, but he'll give ye the
cup of tay and the fine bed ; and ye shall have my
cloak, and I'll go with ye and see ye snug in." While

CHAP, x.] KING'S COUNTY. 205

this long preface was going on, the young wag who ac-
companied me gave signs of unbelief, which Mary re-
buked by, " And, Pat, it ain't you that have sairved
him, as we have." She got her best cloak, and fastened
it about my neck, for my clothes were dripping with
wet, and we all went out for the castle gate, but William,
who stopped to keep the cabin.

The bell was not answered till the ringing had been
long and loud ; at last we were admitted into the kitch-
en. There was an interesting sight, — a company of
fifty-two were sitting down to a supper of potatoes and
buttermilk, mostly orphans. A few aged people were
among them. They had just arisen from prayer. I
saw, through the door, a table with Bibles, and was in-
formed his custom was to pray before supper with the
family.

Mary made known to the housemaid what a bidable,
nice body she had brought to the master, and begged
her to go and give information. The girl hesitated.
Mary spoke again ; at last the messenger went in, when
a fine maiden lady of fifty majestically approached,
u What is your name ?" Telling her, she answered,
" You can't see Mr. S." " Did I understand you ?" I
asked. " Mr. S. can't see you." This was the good
woman who was " worth a voyage acrass the Atlantic to
listen to her discoorse." The good Mary was aroused,
and rising up, she said with much decision, " It seems
that Mr. S. is not at home. Come, ye shan't stay out
in the staurm ; my poor cabin can give ye a shelter ;"
and taking me by the arm, she drew me towards the
door. The maiden lady whispered in her ear that she
must have a cloak, seeing that I had hers on my shoul-
ders. Mary supposed that she was to be presented
with some cake and tay for the stranger, and refused
the cloak in contempt.

The rain was pouring, the wind was blowing, and I
was wet and weary, but not in the least disheartened.
Pat had no sooner reached the street, than a whole edi-
tion of Irishman's honor, benevolence, sense of proprie-
ty, wit, and anathemas on the lord and lady of the castle

206 [KING'S COUNTY. [CHAP. x.

was commenced. " And there's the puttin' the hand
in the pocket, and takin' out a pound for the poor per-
son, turnin' a dacent body into the black stawrm ; and
there was the blackguard of the near hypocrite, sittin'
by the table, where he'd just been praichin', and sayin'
his prayers. 'Tis true he feeds the hungry childer, you
jee, but a divil of a bit would a scrawl on 'em have, if
they should be in a chapel mindin' their own prayers.
And do you mind that scrawl of a puffed-up bladder,
that come swellin' out to ye ? She'd had her lesson ;
she wasn't bid to ask ye to stop from the stawrm, and
have a warm sup, and rest yer weary bones in a good
bed."

Had I been disposed to have censured the lord or
lady of the castle, Pat's graphic description of their
religion and conduct left nothing unsaid, and I was
silent.

We entered the cabin of Mary ; the brother was
lying down, and the fire was dim upon the heart. Pat
gave the turf a little stir. u And see here, Will, see
what I've brought ye." Will started from his bed.
" And here's the wet and wairy stranger. I've brought
her back to ye ; the good saint of yer master wouldn't
left a whole bone in her body." utNow ye don't say,
Pat, he was goin' to bate her." " Be aisy, Pat," said
Mary, " the divil is always standin' up in yer throat ;
let me spake." Turning to me, she said, " Now ye
will forgive Mr. S., won't ye ? he's a good man."

u But didn't he show the fondness so hard for the
stranger, that the heart would have broke in her, if I
hadn't got her away." "Now," said Will, " tell me
the story."

Mary began, and but for Pat, would have told a
plain and true one, but he was so constantly interfer-
ing, that she succeeded but badly, and turning to me
she said, " And ye'r of his religion, ain't ye ?" Telling
her I did not belong to his society, a Aw ! and why
didn't ye tell me. I shouldn't a' took ye there. I
should know he wouldn't bid ye welcome." " Aw !
that's a purty faith," said Pat ; " that's the religion he

CHAP, x.] KING'S COUNTY. 207

carries under that vagabond of a frieze coat ; that's the
lesson he's larn't out of that blessed book that he's
taichin' the scrawls he's feedin' and braikin' the heart
about ; he'd better take up his owld brogues, and carry
his two heels back to the church he left, than to be de-
nyin' the religion he was raired in, and be walkin' the
earth such a hypocrite."*

Poor Mary was completely out-done, and could only
say to me, " But ye will forgive him, won't ye ?"

Will made another effort, and said, " Aw ! Pat, ye'r
too hard on him. Wasn't we raired on this ground, and
didn't my father sarve his father ? And he's not tum'd
us from his gate, though we don't go to his church, nor
rehairse his prayers." " And well he needn't turn ye
out ; he knows better than that. Wasn't ye'r father as
good a dog as ever watched the gate of a castle, and
didn't he train ye, his curs, to bark for the son as well
as himself for the father ? And what does he do for ye ?
The cabin and the potato ye have ; but where's the
tay and the bread ? Ye haven't a bit for the stran-
ger."

I looked upon this wag of nineteen, and said, u Is
this the growth of Ireland's bogs and ditches ? Are
such, the plants of nature's gardens, left unheeded and
trampled under foot, crushed in the budding by the
careless passenger ? Ah ! little do the proud, titled,
and estated ones of Erin know the power of mind which
is embodied under the ragged garments, their ill-paid
labor compels the toiling ones to wear. Little do they
know that while they look with contempt, or make
themselves merry at the expense of their unlettered
blunders, that these ' thing of nought' are scanning their
every action, are reading them through, and, could they
write a book, would tell them true tales of their char-
acter, which they never themselves understood, and
which would make their ears tingle."

Pat said, " Good night, with good luck to ye, stran-
ger, and maybe ye'll have the pound note in the

* Mr. S. formerly belonged to the Episcopal Church.

208 KING'S COUNTY. [CHAP, x

mornin'." " Aw ! that Pat !" said Mary, there's no
use in tawkin'."

Mary now had enough to do to make the stranger
comfortable ; a pile of dry turf was added, lighting up
a white-washed cabin, and white scoured stools, table,
and cupboard, which amply compensated for every other
inconvenience. She had nothing but the potato and
turnip, and " Sure ye can't eat that." " Put on the
pot," said Will, " it's better than nothin' to her cowld
and wet stomach." Now could I bring the reader into
this cabin, and spread out the whole as it was pictured
to me, I would say I am paid and more than paid for
my visit to Ireland.

When the potatoes and turnips were boiled, they
were mashed together, some milk and salt added,
put upon a glistening plate, a clean bright cloth
spread upon the deal table, and Mary sat down,
groaning at the " strangeness of the master, and the
miserable supper of the bidable woman," and start-
ing as if from profound meditation, " What are we,
after awl ? God save us awl, the best of us, we poor
miserable bodies ; we think we're somethin' when we're
nothin' ; when sick, we think if God will let us live,
we'll do better ; he gives us another start, and we go
on the same gait, and so till the breath grows cowld in
the body. I can give ye a clane bed, and lay ye warm
in it."

u And where will you sleep, Mary ? Do not let me
turn you from your bed." " And that ye won't. I'll
find the comfortable place for my bones." I was led to
the bed-room, and in this floorless cabin what did I
there see 1 A nice bedstead, a clean covering, two soft
flannel blankets, and linen sheets, white and glossy with
starch, and curtains about the bed as white as bleach-
ing could make them. The feathers were stirred in a
narrow compass, to make the bed softer, so that but
one could have room in it, and in this I was put ; then
a clean flannel was heated by the fire, and put about
my shoulders, another about my feet, " to take the
cowld and pain out of my wairy bones."

CHAP, x.] KING'S COUNTY. 209

When Mary had finished putting the covering snugly
about me, she placed the curtains closely around the
bed, and softly went to the kitchen hearth. The door
she left open, and I could see what passed the-re. She
crept to a stool, and kneeling down, she prayed. Yes,
unlettered as she was, I believe she prayed, and I be-
lieve God heard that prayer. She arose, and leaning
her face upon her hands, sat, gently swinging her body,
now and then looking towards my bed, and waited till
she thought me to be asleep. Then putting her cloak
about her, she crept stealthily into my room, and peeped
through the curtain. Seeing my eyes closed, she care-
fully put the drapery together, and crawled behind
me upon the naked bed frame ; for she had put
the bed all under me ; and in a few moments this
unsophisticated, practical, humble Christian was asleep.
She did not intend I should know she was there, and
why ? Lest I should think she had made sacrifices for
me. Was this doing her good works to be seen of men ?
Did I sleep ? Not much. Gratitude to the kind Mary,
and more than all, gratitude to God, that he had
brought me to see, in this day's and night's adventure,
the practical import of the parable of the good Samari-
tan, kept me waking.

When the day dawned, Mary softly stole to the kitch-
en, and made her turf fire ; swept and dusted the floor
and furniture, and while her potatoes were boiling sat
down to meditate, with her face leaning on her hands.
William arose and whispered to Mary, and went out
softly, shutting the door.

I went out, and the kind Mary feared greatly that I
had not slept, and that my breakfast would not sairve
me. " And will ye," she said emphatically, " will ye,
from the heart, forgive Mr. S. ? He'll be sorry when
he thinks on't, that he sent a lone body out in the
stawrm." Assuring her I would from my heart forgive
him ; " and will ye forget it ?" That I could not promise ;
the lesson was too good a one to be forgotten ; u but
Mary, I will make the best possible use of it." The
breakfast was soon ready ; a handful of meal put into

210 KING'S COUNTY. [CHAP. x.

the mashed potatoes, made into a griddle cake, with a
" sup'' of milk, was all that kind-hearted Mary could
offer. And when this was taken, I prepared to depart.
" How can I let ye go, and not have the master hear ye
discoorse, yer so knowledgeable a body ?"

I was fastening my cape about my shoulders, when
she approached, took hold of it as if to assist me, and
looking me full and steadily in the face, said, " Mind,
when ye go to heaven, and I come to the gate, tell ye'r
Lord to let Mary Aigin in ; ' for when the rich master
turned me out in the stawrm, she took me into her ca-
bin, and sheltered me from the tempest, and gev me a
clane bed for the night.' And will ye forgive the mas-
ter before the night comes on ye ? Aw ! ye must for-
give, and the Lord forgive him for his strangeness to the
dacent woman that had been rair'd to good things."
She went with me, and set me on my way, and ardently
did I desire that I might meet poor Mary, where the
rich and the poor shall be rewarded according as their
work shall be ; and when she turned from me, I prayed
that I might be so honored as to have a seat at her feet
in heaven. For I could have no doubt but that spirit of
forgiveness, and that meekness which she manifested,
must have emanated from the sanctifying influences of
the Holy Spirit.

I would not have offered any reward, had it been in
my power ; for I had before learned that reward offered,
for food or lodging' given to a stranger, was always re-
jected, on the sacred principle that it was given for
God's sake. This offering of Mary's was the widow's
mite indeed. " It was all her living." It was given
with sacrifice. She gave up her choicest comfort, her
nice, her comfortable bed, and she relinquished this
comfort without so much as naming it.

The rich master was feeding the poor without any
sacrifice ; he needed it not, and beside he was gratify-
ing that strong — that blinding propensity so inherent
in man, of winning to his favorite party antagonist
practices, if not antagonist principles, bringing them
to say, '; You was right, and I was wrong." Oh, what

CHAP. XL] KING'S COUNTY. 211

a blessed lesson had been before me in the short space
of eighteen hours ! It whispered in my ear, never to
take a man's religion, whether in a tartan or a frieze
coat, in silver slippers or in brogues, till I should fol-
low him home.

I was afterwards told, that the causes of my rejection
at the castle were, going to hear hireling Protestants
preach, and Father Mathew give the pledge.

CHAPTER XL

Novel Interior of a Cabin— No Lodging Place— Dreary walk through mud and
ram to Roscrea — what to do for a bed ? — a profitable Sixpence — Start joyfully,
with fine weather, and threepence in my purse— A Lift from a " Friend"—
Money-letter at Urlingford — Reflections — Honesty and kindness of the poor
Irish Peasantry — Parting from cordial friends — Garrulous fellow-traveller —
Perilous position — Return to Dublin, and kind reception— Puzzling Voyage of
Discovery.

THE morning was cloudy, and rain began soon to fall.
I was five miles from Roscrea, and it being but about
ten in the morning, thought best to go into a shelter
till the rain might subside. A little cabin, with the
tempting flower-pot standing in the window, saying,
" Here are order and content within," induced me to
call. It was built of rough stone, and was not white-
washed ; but when I entered, the scene was changed.
Such a room in cabin or cottage never had met my eyes.
The room was small, and in the midst of it stood a cen-
tre-table of the highest polish. On it were gilt-edged
books, shells, flower-baskets, specimens of Ireland's dia-
monds and gems ; and under it were all the iron and
tin utensils used for cooking, glistening like so many
mirrors. There was no floor but the ground, but a
nice straw mat was at the door, a hearth-rug of no
mean quality, a number of covered stools for the feet,
a nice looking-glass and table, and a bed of the best
appearance, with fringed curtains surrounding it. Two
well-dressed ladies were sitting in the room, with a

212 KING'S COUNTY. [CHAP.XI.

beautiful little lap-jdog on a soft mat at their feet. As
I first entered, I thought of a room of fairies, and hesi-
tated, to see whether the beautiful images made on
my mind by Mary's neat cabin had not swelled to this
fine picture. " Walk in," said one of the ladies, " and
take a scat from the rain."

They were sisters ; one was married to a police
officer, and told me she had not, in her life, been six
miles from that cabin where she was sitting. How
and where she acquired this taste, and where she had
been taught such a finish of house-keeping, so distinct
from all her neighbors, is difficult to understand.
They sat till five o'clock without eating, though they
gave me a biscuit, and they sat without working. The
rain continued, but the young ladies told me that they
had an engagement that evening, to attend a christen-
ing, and must be out. There was a lodging-house
near, and the unmarried sister offered to accompany
me, adding, " The woman is quite odd, and may tell
you she can't lodge you when she can." We went.
A positive denial was the result. I begged her to give
me a shelter from the pitiless storm, giving her my
usual pass-word, " American stranger," telling her
that the Irish were so hospitable, and if she would
visit my country I would do her all the good I could.
All this cringing and coaxing was unavailing. u I
have told ye 1 would'nt lodge ye, and that's enough."
There was an inviting bright fire upon the hearth. I
begged her to let me lie down upon the chairs, and
stop till the rain should cease, and I would go out at
any hour. " I shall not keep you, and that's enough."
I next went to an English family 5 they refused because
they had just moved in. It was night, and very dark,
and the rain and storm increased. I set my face
towards Roscrea, and was struggling with wind and
rain, when I saw the smoke of a cabin coming out at
the door, which a woman had opened, with a pot of
potatoes she was carrying in. I inquired the distance
to Roscrea. " You arn't a-goin' there to-night ; turn
into the house a bit ; a smoky shelter is better than a

CHAP. XL] CO. OF TIPPERARY. 213

stawrm. And why did ye not stop in the lodgin'-house
back ?" Telling her I was refused ; " and did she
think she never might be a walkin', and want a
lodgin' place ? Ah, she's a blackguard ; she stands
there sellin' whiskey from morning to night, to the
vagabonds about the place. "

This cabin had not one redeeming quality. Two
pigs lay in one corner upon a pile of straw ; three
dirty children were on the hearth ; a miserable bed,
one chair, a stool or two, and an old tottering table,
made the sum total of this domicile. And in addition
to the smoke from the turf on the hearth, a copious
volume was poured in from an adjoining room, from
over a partition which extended mid way up. What
could I do here ? Breathing was quite difficult ; and,
*.n or out, my case was no promising one. The poor
man came in from his work, and sat down by a little
low table, and held his arms around the edge, while
the good woman poured the potatoes upon it. He
picked out a large one, which he said weighed a pound,
and, taking off the coat with his nails, presented it to
me. I toasted it upon the coals, ate a part of it, and
went to the door ; and seeing that the rain had not
abated, and that I must go, committed myself to him
" who rides upon the stormy sky," and went out.
" If I had a place, you should not go," the poor man
said, as he saw me going.

My lot for the next two hours was not a pleasant
one. The road was dreadfully clayey and hilly. I
waded through darkness, mud, and storm ; sometimes
on the road, sometimes in the ditch ; and but once met
a human being, whom I found to be an old man, who
pitifully exclaimed, " Ye'r lost ! ye'r destroyed ! and
ye've two miles under ye'r fut to the town." These
two miles were replete with realities — no imagination
here. I reached Roscrea about ten, and everything in
town was still, but the loud pouring of the rain. I
was bewildered, and knew not a single street, till I
saw by a lamp a girl ; and inquiring for the market,
found the old stopping place of the kind woman who

214 CO. OF TIPPERARY. [CHAP. xi.

had invited me to stay, when passing through. And
the first salutation when she saw me enter, was, u I
have no place to put you h2re — I am obliged to sleep
on the boards myself."

My clothes were dripping with wet ; it was past
ten ; and the rain was tremendous. " I believe that I
am not to have a lodging in Ireland to night," was my
answer. " I will go with you to Mrs. T's." She went,
I was refused, and the friend left me, and returned to
her house. Mrs. T. said she had taken two more than
her usual number, and every bed was filled.

Now, kind friends, if you have followed me through
rain and storm to Roscrea, remember the sixpence
given to the poor woman when I passed through the
town, and mark its progress. I stood, not knowing
what to do. In a hotel I could not get a bed, for
want of money. A voice from a dark corner called
out, " Aint ye the American lady that went through
here a few weeks since ?" I answered that I was.
" I've heard of you, and you shall have a bed if I sit
up. You kept a cabin over a poor woman's head, and
God won't let you stay all night in the stawrm." The
mistress was in bed ; this woman went to her, told her
who I was, and extolled my excellencies so vividly, that
the mistress said, " I have a bed in the garret where
the servant sleeps, but there is nothing but a ladder
that leads to it. I could give her clean sheets, and a
chaff bed, but am ashamed to offer such a place." I
heard it, and said, u A ladder is no objection ; give me
clean sheets, and all will be well." The mistress arose,
made me a cup of coffee, and brought bread and but-
ter, and put me in a situation to dry my clothes. I ate
some bread, and took a " sup" of milk, ascended the
ladder, and never slept sweeter. " Cast thy bread upon
the waters and after many days thou shalt find it." I
had found my bread in the place where I left it, and
at the very time I most needed it. But for that trifling
sixpence, 1 should probably have staid under some
hedge that night, or been walking upon the street on
my way to Urlingford.

CHAP, xi.] CO. OF KILKENNY. 215

At five in the morning I was down stairs, called for
my bill, and was told it was three-pence ; nothing for
the supper, and half price for climbing a ladder. I
had now three pence, and but twenty-six miles before
me. I went forth, the clouds were swept from the
sky, the stars were looking out ; it was December, and
the day was just dawning ; the grass was green, made
young and fresh by the rain, and the morning bird
had began his song. I should be ungrateful to say
that I was not happy. I was more than happy, I was
joyful, and commenced singing. I was standing upon
a green bank, admiring the scenery, when the thought
occurred to take out my purse, look at my three-pence,
and realize, if possible, my true condition. A stranger
in a foreign land ; a female, alone, walking with but
three pence in my possession. I did so, and the sight
of the pennies, rude and ungraceful as it might be,
caused me to laugh. " What lack 1 yet ?" was my
prompt reply, and then was I happy that I had been
compelled to test my sincerity in visiting Ireland, and
my firm unwavering belief in the promises and care of
God. I had but just returned my purse to the bag,
when I heard a carriage, and a call, " Stop, and take
a ride to the next town. Here is the American lady
that stopped at my house." This was the Quaker at
whose place I stopped on my route to Galway. This
ride carried me six miles from Roscrea, to the place
where I had stayed at the shopkeeper's, when on my
way. I was met and welcomed at the car by a son of
the family, with, u We're glad to see you ; Uncle has
a letter for you at Urlingford, with money in it from
America ; but he found the seal broken at the office,
and thought it might be unsafe to send it on to
Galway."

A breakfast was prepared. I passed the day in
making repairs in garments sadly racked by storms
and trials before unknown, and the next morning the
boy and car were sent to carry me to Urlingford. My
money was in waiting, my friends were as kind as
when I left, and I sat down to rest and reflect.

216 CO. OF KILKENNY. [CHAP. xi.

I looked back upon the strange journey with pecu-
liar feelings. Through storm and sunshine, by night
and by day, without harm or fear of harm, had I
wandered. I looked down upon the shoes which a
lady presented me in New York, and could say with
the children of Israel, u My shoes waxed not old on iny
feet," though they let in the water ; but they made a
decent appearance outside, which among the peasantry
is a matter of great moment. Filthy as they may be
called in Connaught, yet a clean collar and cuffs would
immediately be noticed, and mentioned as a proof that
I was a " proper person." And I was more careful to
be in tidiness when among the poorest peasantry, than
when among the gentry ; the latter could make suita-
ble allowances for all defects, and the former thought
it, from its rarity, an attainment of great merit.

The protecting kindness of God must be recorded
in particular, as I never had been in the habit of be-
ing out alone after nightfall in city or country, and
should have shrunk from it as improper, if not dan-
gerous. Here, the peace of mind, the unwavering
trust which I ever felt in the arm that sustained me,
kept me not only from fear, but kept me joyful. Yes,
I was joyful, though a stranger, alone, upon desert
mountains, and in deep glens, without money, and
often without food, — sometimes sleeping upon naked
chairs, sometimes upon a pile of straw, and sometimes
not at all. Yet my strength never failed ; no pain of
the head or sickness of the stomach, no cold or fever
ever assailed me. Yes, I can say, that I then knew
and felt, that the bank of heaven was full, that it
could never fail, that the banker knew every deposit,
and knew how and when to give out as the depositor
needed ; and that he would withhold " no more than
was meet," and no longer than was necessary.

"Do not, I beg you," said a kind clergyman, who is
mentioned in this journal, u ever suffer yourself to be
out after dark alone in Ireland. It is presumptuous,
it is dangerous." This was his last injunction, and
twice has he written me the same caution. I thanked

CHAP. ».] CO. OF KILKENNY. 217

him kindly, but could not understand his fears. I had
but one feeling, and that was trust ; and when night
unavoidably overtook me, whether upon a mountain or
in a city, what was that to me ? I loved to hear a
footstep in my path, for I knew it would be accompa-
nied with a " God save ye kindly ;" and that saluta-
tion has ever sounded to me, when alone, like the voice
of Him who said, " My peace I give unto you." And
often have I answered the kind peasant by saying,
" the Lord does save me kindly." These were hal-
cyon days, days of my best and richest, days when I
turned to the God that was within me, and laid hold of
his strength.

Another most important object was attained by my
travellimg as I did. The Irish, their enemies would
have it, are murderers ; they will kill a person for a
few shillings. I was days and weeks in the wildest
parts, certainly much better attired than they were,
often with a small locket about my neck, which they
supposed was a watch. They knew I had crossed the
Atlantic, they knew I was alone, and they did not
suppose, till I told them, but that I had money in
abundance ; and for the most of the time I was wholly
in their power. Why did they not use this power ?
Why, on some lone mountain, three and five miles from
any cabin, did they not leave my bones to bleach there ?
Or why did not some dark glen cover the stranger for
ever from the ken of man ! I learned, too, the true na-
ture of their hospitality, and proved to a demonstration
that it was not feigned ; for invariably when I told them
I could not reward them for their potatoe or lodgings,
u And didn't ye crass the ocean to see the poor ? Ye
may stay as long as ye will."

Facts might be multiplied of unparalleled kindness
from the poor ; but I must prepare for other scenes.
My body and mind were both strengthened by rest and
kindness at the doctor's, where I had been most of the
time since my return ; and to Dublin I must depart.
And so urged was I to spend the Christmas there, that
I felt obliged to say I should not, for could not answer-
10

218 GIUEEN'S COUNTY. [CHAP. n.

ed no purpose. " If you will leave us, the blessing of
God go with you," was the reply ; and man, horse, and
car, cake and cheese, were ready. I felt that morning
that the air of Kilcooley and Kilkenny was wafting
fresh kindness, that the birds sang it, and the dogs
barked it ; and when the doctor, his wife and daughter,
with the little Yankee Doodle, accompanied me to the
gate, I begged that not one of them should speak. I
looked a long farewell. A wave from the hand of the
doctor, a tear in the eye of his companion, were the
last I saw ; and a " God bless you," from the little
Yankee was the last I heard. I hurried the driver to
take me away. Why should I linger ? This was not
my rest. I should not find the like in many families ;
it could not be expected, and it would have paralysed
those strenuous efforts which must be made in accom-
plishing what was before me.

Thirteen miles brought me to the pleasant town of
Durrow, where I stopped for the night, to take passage
in the morning for Dublin. Here I found an afflicted
woman, whose husband had seven years before gone to
New York, and she had not once heard from him. The
sight of an American opened anew the channels of grief,
which had already done a serious work. Kindness was
here lavished without weight or measure, and when
I called for my bill in the morning, " We cannot
ask you anything, for you have had nothing," alluding
to a straw bed which had been prepared by my re-
quest. I paid them more than the ordinary price, for
they had done more than is customary to be done for
lodgers.

At five, while the waning moon and twinkling stars were
still looking out upon the beautiful landscape beneath
them, I was upon the car, with a talkative young coach-
man, and rode five miles, passing the domains of the
rich, whose high walls and wide-spreading lawns made
a striking contrast with the thatched hovels and muddy
door-yards of the wretched poor around them. Never
had 1 ridden in Ireland when the stillness, the scenery,
and the hour of the morning all so happily combined to

CHAP. XL] QUEEN'S COUNTY. 219

make the heart rejoice as now. But the one dreadful,
ever-living truth, like a spectre, haunts the traveller at
every step ; that Ireland's poor, above all others, are
the most miserable, the most forgotten, and the most
patient of all beings. I heed not who says the picture
is too highly drawn. Let them see this picture as I
have seen it, let them walk it, let them eat it, let them
sleep it, as I have done. Let them look at these dis-
gusting rags, with eyes not dimmed by constant use,
and hearts not seared by love of avarice. Let them
look at Ireland as though she was some distant isle,
ruled by some pagan lord. Would they not say,
Blot her from the earth, sink her in the sea, scatter her
t9 the winds, or make her more comely in the eyes of
men ?

I could not but say, while passing these forbidding
cabins, " Sleep on, for when you awake it must only be
to fresh misery ; it must only be to idleness or unre-
quited toil. You are now free from the voice of the
imperious landlord ; you do not now see tho squalid, half
naked child asking for the potatoe ; and you do not see
the light of that sun, which only shines to you to light
up your degradation."

We now reached the handsome town of Abbeyleix,
as the caravan was about leaving for Dublin. A garru-
lous old Protestant of more than eighty, who said he
built the second house in Abbeyleix, 48 years before,
the daughter and granddaughter of the old gentleman,
an elderly Catholic man, a young Irish girl, and a live
turkey made up the passengers, including myself.
When I had answered the knowing old gentleman
all questions about America, from the sitting of con-
gress to the cultivation of pigs, geese, and turkeys, he
told me in turn the wonders of his nation, some of
which were quite incredible, if not ridiculous. His
daughter, who was a married woman, and well dressed,
seemed to enjoy the unceasing volubility of her father ;
and when I remonstrated, she added, " O ! he must be
gratified," and I thqn said I must leave the caravan.
He was well dressed, had read much, and apparently

DUBLIN. [CHAP. xi.

belonged to the higher class of society, so called. What
surely am I to meet next in travelling through Ireland ?
All sorts of characters, in all sorts of condition, were
meeting me at almost every turn.

The conversation now turned upon the subject of
giving the Bible to the common people ; the Catholic
urging that when they could not read it, what possible
good could it do ? And that it was so little valued by
them, whenever they had any of it, they used it for
wrapping-paper, and often for lighting their pipes.
The debate was ended by passengers crowding in, so
that the ride was quite uncomfortable. I had previ-
ously asked the privilege of riding outside, to escape
the old man, but was denied, because the coachman
said it was quite unsafe. The door now opened, and
the coachman invited me to take a seat upon the top,
promising to make me as comfortable as possible. I
would not refuse, because I had asked the favor ; and
though the eminence looked perilous, it must be tried.
There were no seats upon the top, and I was fixed upon
the edge, my feet hanging down, with a heavy coarse
sack flung across them to keep them warm, which I was
obliged to hold in one hand, and with the other to
grasp a wire, to secure me from falling from this dizzy
height. This position I found so uneasy, I was obliged
to draw my feet upon the top of the caravan, and in
this cramped condition rode fifteen miles to Dublin.
Here, in my old lodgings, I found additional welcome,
for it was followed by an invitation to make the house
my home, free from charges. My trunks had been
well minded, and the kindness here seemed but the
other extremity of the chain, beginning at Doctor
White's.

I visited many of the public places in Dublin ; and
in my perambulations alone about the city, noticed
quite a difference in the kindness and civility of the
lower class, especially about the docks, to that of the
same class in the interior. An inquiry concerning a
street would always be answered with civility, but if
any misunderstanding or confusion be manifested, a

CHAP, xi.] DUBLIN.

second inquiry is often followed by rudeness. This is
generally the character of all seaports, in every
country.

The sixth of December, at eight in the morning, I
took a piece of bread, and went out upon the circular
road that surrounds the city. Soon finding myself in
a labyrinth, where water, bridges, mud, and cabmen
were in a confused mass, and not knowing how to get
out, I inquired the way. A wag called out, " Follow
your nose, woman." This answer would not have been
given by a Connaughtman, or a mountain peasant ;
but knowing he was an Irishman, I received it in good
part, and answered that I had followed it till it had
brought me into the ditch, and I found it was not a
good guide, and I now wished some instruction from
more experienced ones. With one consent, every man
left his cab, eager to direct me the shortest way, each
having the best knowledge ; till in the confusion and
the kindness, I was directed all points of the compass
but the right one, and I hardly knew whether to stand
still, move forward, or go back. I went from them,
and inquired of two laboring men, who told me I
was wrong; a third insisted, u she is right ;" following
the direction of the two first, a woman of whom I in-
quired told me I was certainly wrong, and led me on
about docks and walls, till, tired with the chase, I told
her this could not be the way. In anger she turned
away, declaring she would say no more. Another met
me, said I had been led astray, pitied me much, took
me about a circuitous wall, showed me the ships and
houses as a kind of land-marks, adding, " You must go
to the quay, cross the river, and you will be on the
circular road." By this time I was so crazed, that all
roads were alike, and in despair took the track around
the wall again, and stumbled upon the woman who
had left me in anger. " Here comes this woman
again," she said angrily to another. u Yes," I an-
swered, " here she comes again, and is half crazed."
" I knew that afore." By this time I was quite a
penitent, and begged her to tell me once more, and 1

DUBLIN. [CHAP. XH.

would follow her direction. She did so. It was a
long way, but it led me to the ferry. I crossed, and
reached the spot on the circular road from which I
started at two o'clock, having taken the whole circuit,
a distance of twelve, to me, weary miles, and so con-
fused that I cannot now remember one perch of the
way.

CHAPTER XII.

Start for another Tour— How to carry a heavy Load with little Trouble— A for-
midable Animal in the Caravan — Wicklow — Visit to a Poor Cabin, Half-a-crown
earned in Three Months— Attentive Auditory — Wretched condition of a Sick
Woman— The bright Old Man of the Mountain— Sabbath Hymn, and the
Company collected thereby— The Scholar with his Iliad— Visit to Wicklow
Lighthouses— Wexford— Infant School— A tolerant Catholic.

Jan. 9, 1845. — A pleasant stay of four weeks in
Dublin made a journey around the coast, which I had
resolved to take, look a little formidable, as it was in
the depth of winter ; but the work was before me, and
difficulties must be surmounted.

I had become sufficiently acquainted with the pea-
santry of Ireland, to know how to gain access ; and
had resolved that this access should be made an avenue
if possible to do them good. They were not in general
so ignorant nor so bigoted as I had supposed ; many of
the children had access to some kind of instruction in
most parishes I visited. I found that money, as a
reward for any little favor (except among the guides),
was refused, and I resolved to give them books, as
well as to read among them as I had previously done.
The preface of this work informs the reader how these
books were furnished. A good selection of tracts
on practical piety, school books, and English and Irish
Testaments, made up the catalogue.

I will mention the manner of carrying these books,

CHAP. xii.J CO. OF WICKLOW. 223

because it proved to me so convenient ; and if any
other persons should ever climb the mountains and
penetrate the glens as I did, they may find it expe-
dient also. I carried no trunk, but a basket ; had two
pockets in which the tracts were put ; and upon a
strong cord fastened two bags, into which I put the
Testaments, and appended this cord about me, under a
Polka coat. When on a coach or car, these did not
incommode me ; and when I stopped at a town, to
visit upon the adjacent mountains, I took from a bag
what was required, put them in my basket, and went
out, always minding to carry a Testament in my hand,
which every peasant walking with me would ask me
to read.

Thus equipped, like Abraham, I " went out, not
knowing whither I went.'7 The family where I stopped
had anticipated my wants, and furnished me with such
little et ceteras as to a traveller are very grateful, and
the two mindful sisters accompanied me to the caravan,
which at half past three was to go out for Wicklow.
I was cheerful ; I was happy ; till one of the ladies
called out, u Look ! there is a Connaughtman." At
the entrance into the caravan sat a man with blue
stockings to the knee, corduroys above, grey coat, and
a pipe in his mouth. This to me was the u avalanche"
more formidable than beds of straw, potatoes without
salt, nights of wanderings on bleak mountains in rain
and storm. Not because he was a Connaughtman —
not because he was poor — not because he was ignorant ;
but because I hated to my very heart the stench of
tobacco, and the wholesale, never-dying staring which
penetrated every fibre of my frame, and set every nerve
ajar. Laugh who may, I could not help it.

As I approached the vehicle, the kind man moved,
allowing me to sit near the door. A countryman and
countrywoman were in the caravan ; the former soon
fell a-snoring ; and a ride of twenty-two miles in " dark-
ness visible" brought us to Wicklow. The man awoke,
and offered to find me a " proper lodgin'-house," and
in my hurry to escape the Connaughtman, I left my

224 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. XH,

parasol, and lost a guide book, which I never found.
The man found me a comfortable lodging-place, bade
me ^ God speed,'7 and departed.

The next morning, though it rained and the wind
was violent, I walked upon the sea-shore, and seeing
a miserable hut, made my way to it — a dark, cheerless
abode. A man and sickly old wife were sitting by a
pot of potatoes, which was kept boiling by means of
dry fern, which the man was constantly applying to
keep up the blaze. Three children of their own, and a
nurse child, were in the room ; the latter hiding herself
because she was nearly naked. " She is ashamed,
ma'am," said an elder girl ; u she's not a hap'orth to
cover her, and we can do nothing but give her the
potatoe." The father said he had earned but half-
a-crown in three months, had nothing to do from
morning to night but sit, as I saw him. His wife was
evidently in a decline, and when I spoke to her of
another and better world, where the inhabitants should
no more say, " I am sick," she turned aside with a look
of disapprobation ; and the husband, by way of apology,
told the daughters to bring their premium Bibles they
had got in Sabbath school. " We are Protestants,
ma'am, and the children go to Sunday school ; but it's
many a day since the wife and I could get a dacent
suit for the Sabbath." " Your pastor visits you ?" I
said. " Not a hap'orth do his feet ever crass the
threshold of a poor man's cabin like mine, ma'am." I
could only pity, and left them as hopeless as when I
found them.

In the evening, the woman of the house asked,
" Have you anything nice to read, ma'am ?>J Telling
her I had, she prepared to listen, when a fish-woman
entered wet with rain, and seating herself by the fire,
commenced a stream of talk, sense and nonsense, Irish
wit and Irish vulgarity, so compounded and so over-
whelming, that I was about leaving the room, when
the man of the house whispered, u She has lost her
mind, ma'am. Two years ago she had two sons, fine
young men as ye'd find in a day's walk, and they were

CHAP, xn.J [CO. OF WICKLOW. 225

drowned in the say, and she never had her mind since."
I took my books, when she inquired, " Are ye going
to read, ma'am ?" " If you wish, I will, if you can be
quiet." "Be sure I will," and seating herself at my
feet upon the floor, she listened with the deepest
interest. She sat for more than two hours, nor could
she be persuaded to sit anywhere else ; and when I
read some of the last words of the Saviour, in the book
of John, she clasped her hands with wonder and joy,
asking, " Was that for poor sinners like me ?" She
seemed clothed and in her right mind, and I could
think of nothing but the calm that followed when the
Saviour rebuked the wind and the sea. My auditory
had increased to a goodly number, and when I finished,
they inquired, u And could ye sell a few of these
books ?" Telling them they were not to sell, but to
be given ; " and may be ye'd give us a little one,"
meaning the tracts, which they had seen, and " our
children shall read 'em, lady," said one. With all the
simplicity of children, they talked of all the good things
they had heard me read. " And it's many a long day
since we'vft seen the likes of ye, and heard the nice
things ye have said to us." Thanking, blessing, and
bidding me God speed, they went out.

Saturday Morning — The woman had the Evangelists
and the book of Acts, of the Douay translation, reading
them most attentively, exclaiming, " God be merciful
to me, a sinner !" This book she kept under her
counter, and every moment, when at leisure, she was
reading ; nor was this a transient fit, for when I com-
menced reading a chapter in John, she went before
nie, repeating it verbatim as she had learned it before,
till nearly the whole chapter was rehearsed.

A ramble in the afternoon gave me a beautiful pros-
pect of the sea and town. Meeting a peasant, and
inquiring the way, " And ye 're a stranger, and have
ye seen the light-houses a mile and a half from this ?
They will be well worth a walk to them," he said. I
determined to go, but turning into a cabin, a sight was
there presented which diverted me from everything
10*

236 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. xn.

beside. On a pile of straw, placed upon a bedstead in
the corner, lay an emaciated woman without a sheet or
bedspread of any kind, but an. old cloak which but
partly covered her ; and shivering with cold, sitting in
the ashes, were three small children ; and in another
corner, a pile of straw upon the floor, where they slept.
The woman made incoherent answers at first, but soon
was collected, and apologized for her seeming rudeness,
by saying she was ashamed she had answered a lady
so ; and I soon saw she was of no mean extract. She
informed me her husband had been three months in
the hospital ; that her bed and bed-clothes had been
pawned for food ; that she could now relish nothing
but rice and bread, and these she could not procure.
"The doctor used to be kind," said the mother. Tak-
ing the eldest daughter, T went in pursuit of him : the
doctor had forgotten them, and could say no more than
that she must go to the infirmary, or lie as she was. I
went to my lodgings ; the woman had nothing to spare ;
directed me to a hospitable Catholic lady, who never
refused. She was ill ; could not be seen. I went
away disheartened, and was passing among the crowd,
when the servant called after me, u Mrs. D. says she
will see you." Hearing that I was an American, she
hoped to hear from friends there, and when I returned
was received with much affability ; and telling the sad
tale of the dying woman, she pitied, gave a few pence,
enjoining me not to mention the donor, adding, " You
know if we mention our alms-giving, it will do the
giver no good at last." A little covering was purchased
at a pawnbroker's, some bread and rice added, and
carried to the wretched cabin. Stepping "in a few
doors from this abode, and begging a female to look in,
and see that the poor woman should not die so ne-
glected, " We are all starved, and perishing with want,
lady," was the reply, " and cannot mind our neigh-
bors." I went to my lodgings, and passed the evening,
reading to attentive auditors to a late hour.

Sabbath morning. — The sun rose pleasantly — a
welcome sight, as my eyes had scarcely seen a cloudless

CHAP, xir.] CO. OF WICKLOW. 227

- -- , i ..

sky in seven months. Taking a few tracts, I went out
to ascend the wild mountains, which lay back from the
town, and whose heathy sides I was told were sprinkled
with smoky cabins. Climbing rocks, crossing hedges
and ditches, I at last saw a cabin on the brow Qf a
hill, and entered its humble door. An old man was
shaving ; wiping his razor, " God save ye kindly,
lady ; and sure ye must have gone astray, to be so airly
out on this wild mountain ; ye must be a stranger ; and
have ye no comrade to be with ye ?"

His tall stooping figure, his noble bald forehead,
the sprinkling grey locks upon the back and sides of
his head, the lustre of his eye, and the smoothness of
his placid face, made him an object of deep interest at
first sight ; but when he told me he had breathed the
air of seventy-five winters on these mountains, with-
out a "hap'orth of sickness, or pill from the doctor,"
and could read my books with a naked eye, I was
almost incredulous. " If ye have a Douay Testament,
I will try my hand at one, lady ; but will not touch
any other." Promising to return with one, if I had
any, he accompanied me a good distance up the moun-
tain, and making a low bow, which would have done
honor to a Parisian, he bade a good morning, adding,
" Ye must be in haste, ma'am, if ye would be in time
for chapel."

The light-house soon met my eye, standing upon a
craggy rock — the old one, which had been struck by
lightning, all shattered and useless, waiting at a re-
spectful distance. But the bold, the awful grandeur
of this place — how can I describe it, that the reader
may understand me ? The gate was fast closed that led
to the neat white dwelling-houses upon the brow of the
rock, and making a circuitous route, I descended into a
glen, then up a wild craggy steep, by the help of both
feet and hands, and found myself upon the top of an
awfully grand rock, partly covered with grass and firs,
overlooking the then placid waves that lay at the foot.
The sun was shining, and, though January 12th, birds
were singing, and green spots of grass were here and

328 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. xn.

there scattered among the ploughed fields at a distance.
Far at my back were extensive cultivated lands upon
the mountains, which, by their natural unevenncss, still
retained their wildness ; and at my right was stretched
the fine strand of Wicklow. Not a human being was
near, but God had left an impress there which could
not be misunderstood. I sat down, and looked into
the abyss, eddying, deep, and dark, in a niche between
two rocks at my left. The sea was spread out at an
interminable distance to the eye, sparkling in the sun-
beam, and bearing a solitary sail floating at ease.
Taking off my bonnet, I paused to wonder and adore.
It was the resurrection morning. I saw no sepulchre
here hewn out of the rock, but caves were scattered on
right and left, where ancient chieftains had made their
abode. I commenced singing my favorite hymn,

" Majestic sweetness sits enthroned ;"

and when finished, looked about, and saw the shadows
of eight boys who were standing upon the rock behind
me. They were at a distance, beyond the rock, had
heard the singing, and leaping up the sides, stood in
breathless silence, nor did one of them stir till I kindly
saluted them, when a laughing face of ten years said,
" And ye sung well, and didn't we hear it ?" The peo-
ple at the light-house had heard, and came running
upon the brow of the rock, on the other hand of me,
not knowing what strange sounds could be floating upon
the air so early.

I turned and looked upon the group of wild moun-
tain boys, buoyant and light-footed as the hare they
were pursuing, as they stood, undaunted though not
impudent, before me ; and said, " What was Ireland
once, and what is she now !" In spite of oppression,
her children, free as the mountain air, eat their potatoe,
hunt their rabbit and deer, leap upon the rocks, laugh
and sing, dance upon the green, and tell you tales of
ancient Irish days, and throw out their light sallies of
wit, which seems like an inexhaustible fountain, bub-
bling spontaneously at every breath.

CHAP, xn.j CO. OF WICKLOW.' 229

" And are you going to church or chapel, my boys ?"

" All Protestants," cried one. " That we aint," an-
swered a second ; " some are Romans, and some Pro-
testants.J>

" We are after hunting a hare, ma'am."

" And what will you do if you take one ? — divide it
among you ?"

a The dogs kills it, ma'am ; and the one that picks it
up first gits it ; but if two gits hold at once, they fights
till one bates the other, and then he carries it off; so
that's the way, ma'am."

u But," said the laughing one, "will ye take me
with ye to America r"

" And what could I do with you ? I am not going
yet."

" O take me along, and when ye eat, give me some-
thing— that's all, ma'am, I'd want ; and so I'd always
be about ye ; d'ye see, ma'am ?''

" And couldn't ye get through the gate t Come, and
we'll open it for ye."

They did so, and a light-keeper's wife, young and
pleasant, with a neat shoe and open thin stocking, with
prayer-book in hand, going to church, met me.

" You have not seen the light-house under the rock,
ma'am, which is the greatest curiosity in all this coun-
try." Of this I had heard nothing before. " You should
return and see it when the lamps are lighted."

It was now church-time. I returned to town, in
company with the young woman and laughing boy,
who kept near us down the mountain, a distance of
two miles ; then leaping over a wall, he left us for
chapel. Returning to my lodgings, the woman had
locked the door of my room and gone to mass, and I
was compelled to wait the return of the light-house
keeper in the kitchen, till both church and mass were
ended. Twilight was gathering, and the young stran-
ger had not called as she promised, and taking a few
tracts and a Douay translation for the old man, I
ascended the mountain, and entering the cabin, was
cordially welcomed. The gift was gratefully received,

230 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. m

and the daughter of the old man accompanied me on,
till reaching a gate we met a young man well dressed,
with Homer's Iliad in his hand, who politely showed
us through the gate to the rock, where in the morning
I had lost two tortoise-shell combs, when singing to
the boys. The mountain linguist found them, and
then read aloud the tract, " The worth of a dollar."
He was a good reader, and when I offered the tract as a
donation, he answered, u I thank you, ma'am ; I have
a good library at home, and you had better present it
to some one who has no books." I was now forced to
resort to the strange fact, that has often been related
of Ireland, that among her wildest mountains and
glens shepherd boys are found reading and talking
Latin.

Darkness was gathering, and showing me through
the gate, my learned linguist and cabin-girl bade me a
good night, and returned to their smoky abodes in the
mountain ; and a short walk led me to the light-house,
and an apology from the young mother, that she was a
stranger in town, and could not find my lodgings, cor-
rected all suspicions.

" Will you see the light-house under the rock ?" I
followed the wary steps of my courteous pioneer and
her two little ones, till she led me to the top of the
awful precipice. A high wall was on the right, and
stone stairs made the descent safe, and the wall partly
kept from the view the awful abyss at our feet ; when
we had descended thirty or more steps, the wall turned
and passed before us, and peeping over, the top of the
lighthouse in the deep below met our eyes, as if actu-
ally coming out of the gulf beneath, and casting its
glaring light upon the dark waters around. A kind of
horror mixed with admiration came over me ; the first
impression being, that this was a picture of the abode of
the lost ; but looking up over the top of the rock, I saw
the crescent moon looking down with such complacency,
that I knew the despairing were not there. I gazed in
silence, for I had nothing to say.

At the bottom of this frightful precipice, a tabu-

CHAP, xn .j CO. OF WICKLOW. 231

lar rock juts into the sea, on which the light-house
stands. Sufficiently broad is this rock for the neat
little dwelling-house of the keeper, sheltered from the
wild winds, which are often blowing furiously over the
precipice above. When I had wondered and wondered
again, I was introduced into the cottage of the keeper,
who kindly showed me into the light-house, and ex-
plained the principle on which it is built. Government
has mercifully provided this guide, at the bottom of
this dangerous precipice. While the one from the top
tells the mariner, at a great distance, that difficulties
are near, the one at the bottom kindly shows him how
to avoid them. Four paid keepers are here, two
Catholics and two Protestants, with salaries that give
them a genteel support, accompanied with but a little
labor. Mr. Page took me a winding path up the
rock, avoiding the steps, and I tarried with the young
guide, meeting again the laughing boy, who had fol-
lowed me in the morning ; and who fixed himself be-
hind my chair, pulling my dress at every pause, and
whispering, " Won't ye sing, ma'am, and take me
along with ye when ye go?" I actually sang in self-
defence, for he would not take a denial ; and at every
close he laughed outright by way of chorus. " Pat,"
said the young housekeeper, u keep you-r laughing till
the lady is done." Pat heeded not, but laughed on at
every pause, turning my grave psalmody into the high-
est merriment.

The scene now changed ; clouds suddenly covered the
heavens, and furious winds howled dismally through the
night. " You see," said the keeper, " the necessity and
mercy of these lights. Storms like these are often howl-
ing, and they come so suddenly, that vessels would be
in continual danger without them."

The next day I dined on kale and excellent potatoes
at the house of a Roman Catholic, who was one of the
four keeping the light-houses, and father to the merry
Pat, whom they had excluded from my presence,
because " he is bold, ma'am ; he is a bold boy." The
lateness of the hour urged my departure from this

232 CO. OF WICKLOW. [CHAP. in.

hospitable place, and peeping into the barn where the
banished Pat was busied, I told him he must sober his
face, for I was going to leave him. And the question,
" Why don't you take me along ? and ye aint going
without me ?" made me hurry, lest he should be in
pursuit. I was left at the gate by the husband of my
young Protestant guide, with a " God bless ye," to
combat with furious winds and pelting rain. Hurrying
to the cabin of the graceful old man, he said, " And
I'll show ye to the gate, for the night'll be heavy on
ye, and the road 'ill be muddy under your fut." The
road was indeed muddy, and cracked stones had been
put on for a mile, which made the walking almost
intolerable. It was a long, dreary, bewildering walk,
and a " Welcome, welcome !" at the door of my lodg-
ing, " ye'r destroyed," was a gladsome salute to my
ears.

The town of Wicklow, with its narrow unpaved
streets, presented few enticements to a stranger ; but
her glens, her richly cultivated fields, bordering on
the sweet Vale of Avoca I had traversed before, were
pleasant mementoes ; and now the wild mountains, with

a womanish tear from my eye.

January 14th. — Arose early to depart, and felt a
regret at leaving so kind a home and so interesting a
woman. In search of knowledge she was hungering
and thirsting, at times insensible to anything else ;
dropping her Douay gospels when a customer entered,
with her handkerchief wrapped about it, and catching
it up the moment her shop was vacated. 1 left a small
Bible on the counter one morning, to go out and spend
the day, and the next morning I heard her telling the
story of Joseph to a servant with the most minute
correctness. " Pray," said she, " that I may not lose
my soul," as she grasped my hand for the last time.
I had a three miles' walk before I could reach the
coach in anticipation, with a boy to carry my bag, and

CHAP, xii.j CO. OF WEXFORD. 233

should have mentioned that the hostess would take
nothing for my food, and but little for my lodging. I
reached the stopping place of the coach in good time
to give a temperance lecture to a company of travellers,
who were taking their punch ; at first they made light
of it, but soon became sobered when I cited them to
the judgment, where we must all appear. And here
allow me to say to Bible readers, that never in all my
tour did I fail of a patient hearing among the most
incorrigible or trifling, whenever I solemnly cited them
to a day of final retribution. They seem to have a
most solemn awe of a judgment to come, and the
obligation they are under to a Saviour for his death
and sufferings. I had a great and attentive audience,
with a multitude of " God bless and speed ye on your
way ; for sure ye're a wonderful body, and the like of
ye never was seen." A good seat on the coach, and a
pleasant ride through Rathdrum, Arklow, Gorey, and
Enniscorthy to Wexford, made me forget I was a
passing stranger in a strange land. At Gorey, an
intelligent Irishman got upon the coach ; he was full
of talk and pleasantness, gave me much information of
the places we passed, offered to find me a good lodging
house, and show me the town of Wexford the next
day.

It was dark when the coachman blew his horn at
the town, and my talkative companion, after repeated
efforts to procure private lodgings, sent me with the
coachman to the office, with the promise to send a man
and find a lodging, which was done by placing me in a
hotel. This was unpleasant ; for a solitary female feels
herself more in a crowd, and cannot mingle with the
inmates at all, to get or give information ; but here I
was kindly treated, had a parlor and bed-room en-
tirely to myself, a kind servant to do all, stayed twenty-
four hours, had two meals of potatoes, milk, and salt,
and the whole for a shilling. It was a well ordered
house, conducted by two young sisters, orphans, who
were left in charge of this by their father ; and to the

234 CO. OF WEXFORD. [CHAP. XH.

stranger I would say, call at the Farmer's Hotel at
Wexford, for comfort and respectability.

In the afternoon looked into a poor cabin. The
woman received me kindly, but seemed depressed with
poverty, said her husband had had no work for weeks.
She had two children in an infant school, one seven and
the other five ; and though the eldest had been there
years, and the youngest months, yet neither of the two
could read.* Curiosity led me to this infant school;
found them eating dinner, with each a huge potatoe in
the left hand, and a tin cup of soup, out of which they
were supping from the right. This was an additional
proof of the habit I had often noticed in the Irish in
America, that they always prefer eating the potatoe
from the hand as bread, to using a knife and fork.
This was a Protestant parochial school ; but more
Catholics in attendance than Protestants ; and the
teacher observed that the Bible was daily read ; " and I
find the children of the Catholics much more ready in
the Scriptures than the Protestants, and make me
much less trouble in getting their lessons. I cannot
account for the fact, but so it is." The circumstance
is easily explained. The Scripture which is expounded
to them by their spiritual guides, is impressed as being
of the most awful importance, and its consequences of
the most weighty import ; and when they get access
to this testimony of God, they are prepared to treat it
as such. The Protestant child relishes it no better
than a stale piece of bread and butter, which he is
often forced to eat as a punishment, when his stomach
is already satiated. An intelligent gentleman from
Dublin remarked, he was whipped through the Bible
by a Protestant uncle when a child, and had hated it
ever since.

Returning to the kind woman, she went in pursuit
of lodgings, and inquiring at five, the sixth took me in
for sixpence a night. The woman was poor, her house

* Through all Ireland I had noticed, that few good readers
could be found, either among children or adults ; but the writing in
general was good.

CHAP. xiii. J CO. OF WEXFORD. 235

was tidy, and I stopped with her, found she managed
discreetly with her little all, and was extremely anxious
about her young children, that they might be well
educated. " I send them," said she, " to a Protestant
school, because it is the best one. God be praised, my
parents never larnt me to read, and my children shall
not be bred in such ignorance." Darkness was over
her mind, but it was darkness that was felt. I read to
her a tract, and some of the most touching passages of
Christ's life, which filled her with admiration ; thinking
me a Catholic, she added, " You know none can be
saved out of our church, but yet I have lived with so
many good Protestants that I could not see why they
are not as good Christians as we, and why can they
not be saved if they do right ?" Telling her all that
fear God and work righteousness will be saved, and
that I had determined to take Christ for example, and
his word for a ' guide, and obey neither priest nor
minister no further than they obeyed God, " Ye are
right, ye are right," was the answer. She was in her
own way truly religious, and watchful over her temper,
and a better pattern than many who are much in
advance in a knowledge of the world and books. Her
husband is a drunkard, had gone to Dublin in pursuit
of work, spent his money, and was torturing her with
entreaties for more. Father Mathew has much to do
yet to redeem Ireland from the curse of whiskey, for
in high life it retains a deadly grasp.

CHAPTER XIII.

Public Buildings in Wexford — Unexpected Delay — American Family — A Rare
Lady — Appreciation of Teachers — Doctors differ — Delightful Family— Over-
lading of Vehicles — Wuterford — Clonmel — Car Travelling and Companions on
the Road — Lodgings in Cork.

Thursday^ January IQth. — Another bright morning
dawned, and I improved it by walking to the chapel, a

236 CO. OF WEXFORD. [CHAP. xm.

fine one with a friars' convent and library attached to
it. At a little distance is the nunnery. Over the
town on the hill stands the college, a splendid estab-
lishment ; the chapel has the most splendid stained
window I had seen in all Ireland, and while admiring it,
a devotee arose from his knees, accosted me civilly, and
insisted I should go through the college, and then
entered warmly into the merits of the church. Priests
and students passed us, while, as each drew near, the
ardor of the good man increased. Both logic and ar-
gument would here hav.e been useless, and when the
strength of feeling had subsided, for the want of oppo-
sition, he pointed me to the grand pile, containing
college, chapel, the house of the priests, and a large
house for the sisters of mercy which stands back of the
college. Seventy students are here, preparing for the
priesthood under the instruction of priests.

A holy well is on the wayside between the college
and town, but the virtues of these wells are somewhat
on the wane ; the priests are not encouraging a resort to
them, and but now and then a solitary devotee is seen
kneeling beside their sacred waters.

From the college I went to the jail, and found my
complaisant coach passenger giving orders to his men,
who were building a large addition to the prison. He
showed me the cells of debtors and criminals, which
are exceedingly clean and well ventilated ; the pave-
ments about the doors and yards were tastefully laid
out in flowers made of small stones, and at one door
was the Irish harp and " Erin go bragh." Finding a
school here, where the young found guilty of petty
theft are instructed, I gave each of them tracts, and
some portions of Scripture, and distributed them
throughout the cells. The prisoners are all at work
or at school when not sick ; a novel sight to see shopj
in a common jail, and all kinds of trade going on, and
a regular routine of education. I was introduced into
a room called " Master Debtors," such as pay their own
board, or rather such as find themselves. Two women
were here in a pleasant room ; one, the widow of a

CHAP, xiii.] CO. OF WEXFORD. 237

British officer, had accompanied her husband to the
West Indies, was intelligent, and seemed quite asto-
nished at seeing me, supposing that I had come as an
inmate. My laughing guide enjoyed it much, claiming
the honor of bailiff. The bedsteads were all of iron,
with comfortable coverings, a shower-bath, and a good
pump of water near by. The women and girls, which
were put in for petty theft, were sewing and knitting
in a pleasant room. Their thieving was mostly for
taking potatoes, driven by hunger to desperation, or
some trifling article to exchange for food. Yet on the
whole the place looked little like a house of punish-
ment, and doubtless most of them were in a better con-
dition than when at home.

From the jail, I went to the poorhouse alone. This
stands upon a hill on the west side of the town, in a
healthy romantic spot. The paved walks, with pebbles
put in like those at the jail, first attracted attention.
A middle-aged woman at the entrance begged for a
" ha'penny to buy snuff." Telling her if she had food
for her mouth, her nose would do quite well without
i?eeding, and that I should do very wrong to give it to
her for that purpose, she went away amazed. The
matron approaching, I inquired if I could be shown
the rooms. " Do you wish to be taken in ?'' she asked.
" Not exactly then," I answered, " though I might
wish to soon. I had come from America to see the
country, its institutions, manners, and customs." She
apologised, and took me into the hall, where the
children were being seated at dinner. Three pounds
of potatoes and a pint of buttermilk to each, " enough,"
I said to the keeper, " to well nigh cram them to
death." The commissioners were entering to inspect
the rooms. I was admitted among them, and shown
the apartments. Seventy were on the sick list, many
with eruptions occasioned by cleansing the skin, and
giving clean food ;* the old women all begging for a

* This is well known to physiologists, that cleansing the skin,
and using coarse bread, will throw off all the impurities of the
blood, and when th^se impurities appear upon the surface, it is a
favorable symptom.

238 CO. OF WEXFORD. [CHAP. xm.

" ha'penny to buy snuff," till it was truly disgusting.
Tobacco in Ireland is one of its greatest curses ; it is
a mania infecting all classes, from the lord to the
beggar ; and thousands are now strolling the streets
in hunger, when they might be made comfortable in a
poorhouse, because they are forbidden to use this nasty
weed.

I offered some tracts to a company of boys who were
making shoes, when an overseer interfered, " We take
no tracts here, madam. Your books may be good, and
your tracts good ; but we have a valuable library and
good schools. Here, sir," turning to the teacher, " take
this lady along, and show her the books." After show-
ing me the library, specimens of books, &c , I was po-
litely handed out, and departed, feeling that an embar-
go had been laid on my inquiries and investigations,
which I had met nowhere else in Ireland.

Friday. — A tremendous rain kept me in, writing to
American friends, and on Saturday went to the steam
packet office, to secure a passage for Waterford. The
packet had not arrived ; I felt a little disappointed,
and hardly knew where to direct my steps. My
lodgings were gloomy, and my work in Wexford was
done, and a longer stay would be but a punishment
and loss of time. u It may be for something that I am
detained, which will cause me to be thankful," I
doubtingly said, when crossing the threshold of the
infant school I had previously visited. " You had better
visit the parochial school," said the teacher. I went
because I had nothing else to do, and found a school of
boys supported by the Protestant church. The rector
and curate came in to catechise them ; the rector was
thorough in his investigations, and faithful in imbuing
their young minds in the holy principles of the Chris-
tian belief, as inculcated in the English church. Learn-
ing that I was an American, he said, u You should
visit a family of Americans here ; the mother has
lately come from there." This was a fresh impetus,
and without preface or apology, I turned my steps
towards the u Hermitage," the place *where lived the

CHAP. XIIL] CO. OF WEXFORD. 239

American lady. The mud was intolerable, and standing
nearly over the tops of my boots in it, I. demurred
whether to proceed, when my country prevailed, and I
made an onward effort. A peasant with a cart, wife,
child, and other et ceteras, now called out, " May be
you'd get up on the cart a bit," and gladly I accepted,
and was carried to a better road, and soon found the
gate, which opened upon an extended lawn, presenting
a wholesome and somewhat tasty house, a little, as I
would have it, in American style.

My sanguine expectations were a little repulsed, at
the distant reception with which my warm salute was
returned by the widow and her daughter. They could
not trust their eyes, ears, or my testimony, that a jour-
ney from New York could bring a solitary female to
visit Ireland. A meek, unassuming woman entered
the parlor, attired so unostentatiously, that I supposed
her some kind of necessary appendage to the family.
u Did you come to see the poor of Ireland ? I love the
name of those that love my Master." Supposing she
was one of the poor, I spoke kindly, and she gave me
her hand and went out. u Lady Nevin," said the
widow, when she was out, u lives in the Hermitage, and
is a pattern of goodness to us all. She said truly,
when she told you she loved those who loved her Mas-
ter, for she is continually visiting the poor, administer-
ing to their wants, and talking to them of the Love of
Christ." A strange lady surely! such an one I had
not met in Ireland, and when afterwards I visited the
Hermitage, and saw her meek, unassuming manner,
her simplicity of dress, and the arrangement of her
house, and heard her kind words of the poor about her,
my heart said, Would that all the titled ones of Ireland
had been with Christ, and learned of Him like this
disciple ! Then would this poverty-stricken isle sing for
joy and gladness.

The American family had been introduced to Ireland
by the estated gentleman, whose parentage was some-
what pretending, but who, by a natural defect of the lip,
could not speak clearly, which doubtless had served to

240 CO. OF WEXFORD. [CHAP. xm.

keep in subjection that pride which is too much the off-
spring of high birth, and caused his good sense, clear
judgment, benevolence, conscience, and firmness to hava
full scope, and made him the Protestant gentleman, if
not the Protestant Christian. His wife was a genuine
New Englander, trained in the land of " steady habits"
(the state of Connecticut), and could not, would not
like Ireland. Her husband had visited New York, and
persuaded her to leave her country for himself and
estate, and the mother, a widow, having no other child,
had followed her. An adopted son, on whom they
placed their affections, was the only little one that
adorned their hearth.

I was detained another week by the packet, and
visited the scattered cabins in the neighborhood, and
heard an unanimous chorus of prayers and blessings
bestowed on their kind benefactors, particularly the
good Lady Nevin. The little adopted favorite led me
one morning to his school ; over hedges and ditches,
through bog and field, we made our way, to shorten the
route, and reached at last the spot where the

" Village Master taught his little school."

He was a Catholic-, and under a thread-bare coat, he
carried a warm heart, and his head was not void of
good common sense, clear discernment, and close think-
ing. " I despise the principle," said he, " of censuring
a man because he does not attend the same church or
chapel with myself. Let me see him love his country,
and do by his neighbor as a Christian, let me see him
love mercy and practise justice, and it is enough."

The little boy of my friends was the only Protestant
child in his school, and when 1 invited the teacher to
call upon us, his answer was not only indicative of
high and noble sentiment, but a stinging rebuke on
American practices in this country. u I thank you, ma-
dam, for your politeness, but I never put it in the power
of aristocracy to treat me with contempt. Should I
visit your friends, my dinner would be laid in the
kitchen with the servants, and my society be the

CHAP. xui.J CO. OP WEXFORD. ^41

gardener and groom." I was not prepared to believe
him, and on my return mentioned it to the mistress,
who replied, " It would be so ; my husband would not
allow me to act otherwise, and I have never invited him
to the house for the same reasons. I am much pleased
with the instruction he has given our son, and should be
gratified in showing him respect, but the laws of society
in which we move forbid it.17

I begged her, as an American, to show her husband
a " more excellent way," if possible. I pointed her to
the country she so much loved, where teachers are
ranked in the highest grades of society, and to whom
the child is ever pointed as a stimulus to exertion,
knowing that as the teacher is prized, so will be the
instructions he gives, for it is an established law, that
the stream never rises above the fountain, and this ac-
counts in part why the common people of Ireland are
so content without education, and why so few among
them, who are in a way of instruction, arise to eminence.
A teacher whose salary compels him to wear a ragged
coat, is a sorry profession hung out for the child to ac-
quire, and a daily spectacle of indifference if not dis-
respect. A twenty-pound salary, coarse boots, rusty
hat, and a potatoe eaten from hand in the kitchen !

Again went to town to secure a passage, and found
three intelligent young ladies, who were sisters, em-
ployed in acts of mercy for the poor, and who assured
me that though reduced in circumstances, they should
never be lowered in society, because descended from
" high blood." " I acknowledged no high blood but the
blood of Christ," was my answer. While stopping
with these sisters, a summons arrived from no mean
quarter, requesting urgently my appearance at the
house of a high Protestant lady, full of zeal for the
church and compassion for the poor. I went with a
budget of sorrowfuls, to lay down at her feet, gathered
from her suffering nation, but no sooner was I admitted,
than the u tout ensemble" of the lady told me I had
brought my parcel to the wrong shop.

" Madam, you are an American, I hear, and I have

242 CO. OF WEXFORD. [CHAP. xin.

sent for you to learn from your own lips what brought
you to this country."

" To learn the true condition of the poor Irish at
home, and ascertain why so many moneyless, half-clad,
illiterate emigrants are daily landed on our shores."

Inadvertently using the word oppression, I feared a re-
treat would be my only security.

" Oppression ! So you have come to Ireland to stir
the muddy waters, have you ?"

" To look at them as they are, madam."

" Oppression ! The Irish are not oppressed but by
their nasty religion."

" But does their religion compel them to work for
six or eight pence a day, and eat their potatoes on the
side of a ditch ? Does it compel them to reclaim
a bog, for which they are paying twice the value,
without the encouragement of a lease for their improve-
ments ? And does it compel them to pay a tenth for
the support of a religion which they neither believe nor
hear ?»

The tempest was now at its height, and I only suc-
ceeded in adding, that had I dropped from the moon upon
this island, without any previous knowledge, whether
men or angels inhabited it, and surveyed these beauti-
ful domains sprinkled over its surface, and seen the
walking rags that by hedge and by ditch, in bog and in
field, are covering the length and breadth of the land,
I must have known that these fields had been " reaped
down for naught."

A cessation of arms for a moment ensued to admit a
visitor, who by her low courtly bow and long train
told us she had dabbled if not dashed in high life.
Seating herself in a corner, she listened with intense
interest while the good lady resumed the subject, and
remarked, that the poor in Wexford are both com-
fortable and happy. The stranger arose, and, with
another low bow, said, u I must go, madam ; the poor
in Wexford are in a most suffering state : I have been
this morning into the fishermen's cabins ; the fishery

CHAP. XIIL] CO. OF WEXFORD. 243

has all failed, and they sit desolate and idle, without
food or fuel."

This was an unexpected indisputable letting down of
the whole argument, and at this loop-hole I made my
escape, without an invitation either to stop longer or
call again.

Returning at night through mud and tempest, I found
a quite different commodity in the person of a Mrs.

P , whose two young daughters are the " polished

stones," which might adorn any palace where grace and
virtue reside.

" You find poor Ireland," she said, " in deep afflic-
tion ; and can you see any way to better her con-
dition ?" An invitation to her house was accepted,
and I then found that the love of kindness was not
only upon her lips, but in her heart ;- her house and
family were so well regulated, that I could see no cause
for improvement, and I feared my stay would be made
quite too pleasant. The lawn before the door, with its
pile of wild rocks — the bird that tamely sat upon the
window-seat each morning for its crumbs — the sheep
and the goat that licked the hand of the sweet girl
that caressed them — the pony that lapped the cheek,
and the spaniel that lay at the feet of these children
of kindness, added to the cheerful comfort of the well-
paid, well-fed, faithful domestics, made this house
to me a little Bethel. One Sabbath was spent in it,
and it was one of profitable quiet rest ; the domestics
and children the day previous had anticipated its
approach, and, by long habit, had made all things
ready.*

The mother, daughters, and myself rode upon a car
to church, through the deer-park and well laid out
lands of a lord, who is not an absentee, but stays
at home, making his tenants comfortable. A sick
curate gave us a sickly sermon ; his stinted salary
gave no spur to rhetorical flourishes or well-turned

* I have mingled in families of all classes, in different countries,
and have never found one of good order, refined manners, and strict
morality, that did not regard the Sabbath.

244 CO. OF WATERFORD. [CHAP. xm.

periods, and his sunken cheek and husky voice warned
of hasty dismission to another, more permanent parish.
On our way home, a mile distant from each other, we
passed two fools, who lived upon the street, and were
better clad than their more sensible neighbors of the
laboring class, strong and hearty, good-natured, and
always welcome to the inhabitants, for their innocent
mirth and ready wit, which would have made them well
qualified for king's fools.

At evening I must say adieu to this pleasant widow
and lovely family, and return to town to my old lodg-
ings. My American friend arrived with a huge piece of
plum-cake, of my own baking at her house, and being
laden with kind wishes, a boy, cart, and ass, were
equipped cap-a-pie to conduct me thither ; but not
without u casting many a longing look behind'' did I
leave this spot, going out I scarcely knew whither.

The next day was spent with the three sisters, who
prepared me coarse bread and cocoa for my journey on
the morrow, which saw me depart, packed upon a car
with a sailor on one side and a quiet josy on the other,
who kept his terra firma without any variation, occa-
sionally saying, u I'm afraid ye're crushed, ma'am," and
this continued for thirty-three miles to the old town of
Waterford. The unmerciful loading of cars and
coaches in Ireland, the whipping and driving to u keep
up to time," has no parallel in any country I have
travelled. A lame and worn-down horse is often
loaded with six and seven passengers, and all necessary
baggage, often with a galled back, and then beaten till
I have, when expostulation was unavailing, jumped from
a car, ready to resolve I never would ride a mile upon
any vehicle drawn by a horse, while in the country. It
is true, merciful men have enacted merciful laws against
cruelty in the country, and these laws are sometimes en-
forced ; yet still, could the dumb ass li rebuke the
madness" of these Irishmen as often as he is un-
mercifully beaten, Ireland would have talking asses
added to her incongruities, in every part of the is-
land.

CHAP. XIIL] CO. OF TIPPtfRARY. 245

My stay in Waterford was short. A walk through
and over the town gave me a view of its buildings, and
an entrance into the cabins a sight of its misery. One
poor Englishwoman told me she was a Protestant, but
appeared to know no more the meaning of the word, or
the way of life and salvation, than did the seat on which
she was sitting. And lamentable as it is, the lower
class of Protestants, wherever 1 have met them in Ire-
land, are more ignorant of their religion than the same
class among the Catholics. Their teachers do not pay
the attention to the poor of the flock, as the ever-watch-
ful Catholics do ; and the prayer-book, mumbled over
at church, is the only pilot many among them think ne-
cessary to take them safely into port.

I saw nothing here of particular note, but the quay,
which is convenient and handsome, and an old round
tower for the transient confinement of unruly persons,
bearing date 1003 marked upon its dingy front. The
house where I lodged could boast little else but filth,
and the people who resorted to it vulgarity, and at
three in the afternoon again took a car for Clonmel.
I had now again reached the depot of Bianconi's
monopoly, and found sound and lame horses, double
and single cars, with aprons " tattered and torn," and
dilapidated seats, defaced by long friction, still adding
to his purse, while his coachmen, thrown upon the
public with tenpence and a shilling a day, if not ask-
ing for rent, are u looking daggers" at every passenger
who ventures to leave without a shilling ; yet Bianconi
is a u noble man." " All men will speak well of thee,
when thou doest well for thyself."

I was tremendously crowded, but said not a word,
for I had found that silence in all troublesome cases
was the best defence and only remedy. A stopping
place packed another talkative, would-be-learned Irish-
man at my right ; and as the stars looked out upon us,
he turned to a neighbor, and talked scientifically of the
planet Jupiter, and his moons, ventured a little upon
the ring of Saturn, and ended with an ardent wish to

346 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xrn.

see Lord Rosse's telescope. So sorry was I when the
lecture ended, that had it not been presuming for a wo-
man to know that the moon is not a pot of curds and
cream, I should have proposed a question or two, to
have kept alive the conversation.

A night in Clonmel was spent, a good portion of it
in seeking a lodging-place, my kind friend O'Connolly
accompanying me, and at last a tolerable one was found
for sixpence, and early on the morrow, I took a Bianco-
ni for Cork. A long ride of fifty miles in a snowy win-
try day, on an open car, with the wind blowing full in
my face, and my seat the next one to the horses, made
me more than willing to reach the city. About mid-
day passengers were exchanged, and a young English-
man, a young boarding-school miss from Dublin, and a
spruce Dublinite, fresh from the army, with two dogs,
a big and little one, were seated upon the car, the larg-
er one, dog-like, sitting upon the seat, the small one
upon his master's lap. We had proceeded but a few
miles, when a huge Goliath, with brandy-blotched face
and beef-eating front, made application for a seat,
and the senior dog was transferred to a box over my
head. The restless animal, tied to the box, had no
certain resting place but on my shoulders or bonnet,
and at every jostle of the car, his talons took a fresh
grip of the foundation beneath him. Twenty miles
in this deplorable plight, brought us at nine o'clock to
Cork.

Inquiring of the coachman for a lodging-house, he
said he could procure a clean one, and sent his son as
a guide, who led me through a dark alley into a house,
whose very threshold was most frightful, and the room
itself more so ; and shrinking back, and saying, " I
think I will not stop," the coachman peremptorily said,
u show her a room." Giving a hasty peep into the
bed-room, he added, " you can give this lady a clean
bed," and then hurried down stairs, leaving me stand-
ing like a petrified statue, to take my own time and
my own way. Looking in, if my astonished eyes
needed anything to make out the picture, here were

CHAP. TIII.] CU. OF CORK. 247

the materials. But what is the use of conferring with
" flesh and blood," when there is no alternative ? My
fate was irrevocably fixed for the night, and demurring
would neither change the place nor remove the pain,
and collecting myself, I inquired if I could have a few
potatoes. They were boiled, and put upon a dish with
a cup of salt ; and disrobing them of their coat with my
fingers, my supper was soon made. And here, by way
of admonition and comfort, allow me to say to all whom
it may concern, whenever your adventurous lot, like
mine, may be cast in the mountains of Ireland, where
bread is scarce, and flesh none, the inside of a potatoe is
the safest and surest defence against not only the in-
roads of hunger, but other doubtful etceteras, which
(begging pardon) a filthy cabin and exceptionable cabin-
keeper might present.

The family consisted of husband and wife, grandmo-
ther, and five intelligent, interesting children, which
would have adorned a better nursery. They gathered
about me, to see and read the books ; and the eldest, a
lad of fourteen, took a small Testament, and read to
the parents the first four chapters of Matthew, for they
could not read. The dread of an ingress to the bed-
room kept me conjuring new schemes to divert the chil-
dren till a late hour, but it must be encountered. The
coachman was obeyed, for I had clean blankets to my
bed, though some bushels of potatoes were under the
foot of it. By pulling away a dirty cloth, which served
for a pane of glass, and removing an unmentionable or
two, in a half hour my olfactory nerves had no cause
for complaint, and never had I slept sweeter in cabin
or hotel.

In the morning, eating a couple of potatoes, through
snow and sleet, I made my way to the house of a Bap-
tist minister, where I passed the day ; and here, though
a table was spread with knives, forks, and plates, pota-
toes and salt was my hap alone, for bread at a dinner
is not the accompaniment whore potatoes and flesh
are provided. The father returned at evening, and
accompanied me to his vestry, to attend a prayer-

248 CO. OP CORK. [CHAP. xiv.

meeting, and recommended a lodging-place, which was
a happy contrast to the last night's encounter, and
where I found the missionaries" Jassom, Howe, and
the widow of the unfortunate man that was accidentally
shot at Otaheite. Mrs. Fisher, the lady who kept the
house, entered most deeply into my undertakings, and
ceased not to do what she could, during my pleasant
stay in Cork. Her feelings for the stranger did not die
in empty words ; she acted.

CHAPTER XIV.

Reception from Father Mathew— The Aged Nun— Temperance Tea Party-
Danger of becoming a Public Character— One Source of the Reverence paid to
the Priest— Ursuline Convent and its Elegancies— Sail to Cove— Beautifal
Bay— Search for Dr. Power— The Begging Whine— Trip to Blarney— Racy
Old Priest—" The Blackguard Salt Herring"— Wonders of Blarney— Dr.
Barter's Hydropathic Establishment— Our Jolly Priest is no Tetotaller—
Walk to Cove— Pleasant Little Maidens— Delightful time passed in Dr. Pow-
er's Family.

Saturday •, Feb. Is?.— Called at Father Mathew's.
His house is quite plain ; the hall-door is fastened
open from six in the morning, till the same time in the
evening, saying to the citizen and stranger, " ye are
welcome." The carpet of the hall is loose straw, and
a woman sits at the entrance to receive and point the
visitor to the room on the right, where the u rich and
poor meet together," to take the pledge, or spend a
leisure half hour, to watch the movements, and listen
to the salutary cautions and words of kindness from
the lips of this devoted man. My letter of introduc-
tion had been given him some months before, in a
crowd, when he had only opportunity to say, u I will
see you in Cork."

" Why did you not come to me when you first came
to the country ; you knew I would have taken care of
you ?" was the greeting he gave, when I entered.

The room is entirely devoid of ornaments, except

CO. OF CORK.

the papers pasted upon the wall, as cautions to the in-
temperate. Benches are arranged about the room for
those in waiting, on one of which, in an obscure cor-
ner, I took my seat, and saw the lame and deformed,
the clean and the filthy, the well-clad and the tattered,
kneel and take the pledge, and enter their names in a
book, which the clerk who registered them said counted
five millions and four thousand. To the meanest beg-
gar he speaks as kindly as the titled gentleman, and
to the suffering I often saw him slip a little change,
bidding them depart, and not disgrace him by breaking
the pledge.

He invited me to dinner at five o'clock, and his
dining-room wore the same unassuming appearance, as
does everything about him — no carpet, no sofa, and not
an appendage but what was absolutely necessary. His
table is arranged in the most finished order, and the
cooking, which is done by a man, is of the best kind.
He seldom dines alone.

The next morning ,at eight, he invited me to the
chapel, to see an aged nun renew her vow, who had
fifty years been teaching the poor, and had never been
out of that convent. She approached the grating which
separated the room from the chapel, with her black
robe and veil upon her head, while the meek man con-
gratulated her on her long faithfulness in laboring
for the poor, and pointing her to the reward in heaven
which he trusted was in store for her, gave her the
thanks of the convent, and pronounced his benedic-
tion. He spoke of crowning her, a ceremony usual on
such occasions, but she refused the honor. She then
renewed her vow in an audible but softened manner,
promised to be faithful unto death, &c. The cere-
monies closed, I then accompanied Father Mathew
to the convent, where I had been invited to breakfast
with him. The breakfast was the first I had seen in
American style in Ireland, and though their boef-
steak, coffee, and other etceteras I declined, yet good
cream, the best of bread, and jam, made a palatable re-
past. The nuns sat by the table, but did not eat. and
11*

250 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xiv.

were surprised and distressed at my abstinence. I was
here introduced to the nun who had renewed her vow ;
and when she told me she was eighty-four, and not a
furrow had old Time made in her plump placid face, I
was compelled to take her word for it, for there was no
other testimony. Father Mathew sent his man to show
me the way to the Independent church, telling him to go
in, and introduce me to the sexton.

The next evening a temperance meeting was held in
a neatly decorated room, prepared by the poor fishwo-
men, who were tetotalers. " You must go," said Father
Mathew, " as you wish to see the poor. These women,
five years ago, were the greatest nuisances in Cork ;
but they took the pledge, and not one has broken
it."

I went. The rich, too, were there ; they had been
invited because it was the poor who had made the
feast.

The room was crowded ; tea was prepared, and the
meeting was opened by three cheers for the Queen ; and
I could not mention the unexpected kind feeling be-
stowed thus publicly on me, were it not a duty which I
owe to a class of people whom I had ever been taught
felt nothing but bitterness, and acted nothing but perse-
cution to their opponents. But justice, not sectarian-
ism, must be my motto ; character, and not popularity,
must be my watchword.* I was a Protestant, and they
knew it. Father Mathew arose, and introduced me to
the audience, telling them my object in Ireland was to
visit the poor, and learn their true condition ; adding a
sketch of my manner of travelling and living, which I
had never told him.

When the cheering and welcomes had subsided,
Father Mathew, in a low voice, said, " You must speak
to this people, you can do them good ; get up without
delay, and tell them what you came for." My eyes

* As the Roman Catholics in America are mostly from Ireland,
it is a desirable object to ascertain what this religion has done
for them at home, and what character they manifest where it
has been most cultured.

CHAP. xiv.J CO. OP CORK. 251

affected my heart ; I had never before seen such a re-
spectable-looking company of the poor assembled in
Ireland, and, accompanied, too, with the rich and the
noble, taking their tea together. I briefly stated my
motives in visiting Ireland, congratulated them on the
progress of the temperance cause, and sat down.

An old grey-haired priest arose, and said, " I have
read of prophets, I have read of apostles, I have read
of martyrs, but among them all, I never read nor
heard that ever a woman left her country alone, to
search out a poor people — to suffer privation with
them — to learn their true condition. What shall we
do for her, and how shall we express our gratitude ?"

This was reciprocated through the room, and when
the meeting ended, not one of. that great multitude
would leave the house till each had given the hand to
say, " welcome, welcome to our country."

The next day, this old priest called at my lodgings.
I was out, but he left a pressing invitation that I
should visit his parish — said he was a poor man, and
could give me nothing ; but would show me his people
and the country, and that he would happily do. He
found me at Father Mathew's, and redoubled his in-
vitations. The same evening a temperance meeting
was held at the Rock. The promise was made that I
should not be invited to speak ; that supper and mu-
sic would occupy the time, and no speech-making. Not
so ; Father Mathew again said, " Do what you can for
this people. Say what you feel, and say it as you
please.''

The notices made of me in their papers, brought me
before the public so prominently, that I begged them
to desist. I had wished to go through Ireland as
unobservedly as possible, asking no honorary atten-
tions.

The city of Cork, as a whole, has much that is in-
teresting. The houses upon the hill side, that overlook
the main city, the Dyke with rows of trees for a mile
and more, and the country-seats sprinkled in vale and

252 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xiv.

on mountain, show the observer that taste, as well as
wealth, has had something to do in the management.

Upon Wellington-bridge I met an Irishman, who
said, " I have just got out of a bad scrape — have been
to the churchyard with a hearse ; the horses took fright,
and I was drunk, and was very near being killed."
il Come with me to Father Mathew, and take the
pledge." " I could not keep it," he replied, " and it
would do no good." He had made his wife take it,
but as for him there could be no hope. A priest then
passed, when he touched his hat in a respectful man-
ner. " What honor you pay to these men. I see no
touch of the hat when others pass.'' a Not to the man,"
said he, " but to what he may have about him. He
may have been to visit some dying person, and have
some of the broken body of the Saviour around his per-
son." The expression was to me so novel that I said
no more.

Took dinner at Father Mathew's, and met an intelli-
gent priest. A brother and young son of the apostle
of Temperance were present. The order of the table,
the nicely prepared vegetables and fruit, the social en-
lightened cheerfulness, with neither porter nor wine as a
stimulus, certainly would have honored a Protestant
clergyman's table, and made me ardently desire that
they might u go and do likewise."

Wednesday. — Visited the celebrated Ursuline con-
vent at Black Rock. A note of introduction from
Father Mathew, with the young twin sisters of the
family who had once hospitably lodged me, for guides,
made the walk pleasant ; and the reception was cordial
at the convent. We found a spacious building on a
rising ground, commanding a view of the Lee, and a
company of healthy cheerful looking nuns, affable and
intelligent, teaching a school of young ladies, and poor
children. Pianos were in every room, and in some we
found two ; everything bore the appearance of com-
fort and good order, with much taste and style. A
little, well selected museum, added much to the inter-
est of the establishment ; and a more thorough educa-

CHAP. xiv.j CO. OF CORK. 253

tion is here obtained, than in any other school. A nun
played upon an organ with good taste ; and a look
into the chapel of the convent, richly fitted.up, finished
the views of this inside world, which, observed a nun,
u as this is all the world to us, why should we not
gather as much of its beauties as possible around us ?"
The extensive walks, shaded with trees, and well laid
out garden, must compensate considerably for all with-
out. A dinner of pea-soup and toasted bread was to
me a rich treat, but the twin sisters were forbidden by
their church to partake, as it was Ash Wednesday,
and a rigid fast was imposed. The poor girls fretted
and murmured the long walk home, hoping such pe-
nances would be " few and far between." In vain I
preached cheerful submission as a test of obedience —
that no bowing to church or priest — no long fasts or
long prayers, would be available, if performed by com-
pulsion, or to merit a reward. They did not understand
my far-fetched dogmas, and would not be persuaded, but
that a day of suffering like that must meet an ample re-
ward. The dinner-hour brought me to Father Ma-
thew's table, where three kinds of fish, with puddings,
jellies, and fruits, were substitutes for pig, beef, and
poultry, which Lent forbids. The fastings of both Ro-
mans and Protestants are often more ludicrous than
grave ; for while the poor culprit takes a light breakfast
for conscience' sake, he trebles his supper for his sto-
mach's sake, determining that the " sun shall not go
down" till he is paid his wages.

Thursday. — Took a lunch with a lady who had ex-
pressed a desire to see me ; and this desire resulted in
happy consequences to me, ever after while in Cork.
After a pleasant interview, she made an appointment
to visit Blarney on Saturday. I went out, and took the
steam packet for Cove. The prospect up the river was
beautiful, giving the view of Black Rock, and the con-
Yeut, Monkton, and its tasteful cottages and pleasure
grounds. Stepping ashore, I made my way alone up
the hill, to the highest look-out upon the beautiful bay
of Cove, and realized all that had been told me in

254 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xiv.

America by every visitor as well as by Irishmen, u that
the Cove of Cork is not surpassed in beauty by any bay
on our glob£." Its islands and extensive reach, with
its green shores, even in winter, looked like blooming
lawns and summer shades, inviting the saunterer to
bowers of repose ; and to every lover of scenery allow
me to say, a Visit the Cove of Cork, should you ever
take the tour of Ireland."

Upon the top of the hill are springs of clear water,
which send forth rivulets down its side, ever fresh and
never failing, furnishing the dwellers on the sloping hill
a supply the whole year. Inquiring of a woman raising
a bucket of water from one of these sparkling rivulets,
if she could direct me to a lodging-house, one standing
near responded, " You can give her one, and as clane a
bed as in all Cove ;" and I had no cause to regret meet-
ing these cottagers. The room was clean, the bed
wholesome, and the charge moderate ; and at five I made
my entrance into the town over a wall, down a precipice,
partly by stairs, to a range of cabins sheltered under
the hill, and jutting into a narrow path that bordered
on the sea. Seeing a woman at her door, I asked, u Can
you tell me where Doctor Power lives ?" Her answer
was a piteous whine, that her husband had not been
able to airn a sixpence for weeks, and begged me to go
in and see " the poor cratur." All this without a word
of Doctor Power. When the question was repeated,
and the answer, " Will ye walk in and spake to the
man ?" which savored so much of an attack upon my
scanty purse, that, saying I was in haste, and must find
Doctor Power, I turned away, " And y'ill meet him a
bit under yer fut," she called out in a healthy credit-
able tone. A seven months' travelling in Ireland had
taught me a little discrimination. Begging, here, is so
common and so respectable among the poor, that many
resort to intrigues and petty ingenuities when they meet
a stranger ; which is a kind of dishonesty not only to
the stranger, but to the thousands who, by the last ex-
tremity, are driven to this method to escape starva-
tion

CHAP, xiv.] CO. OF CORK. 255

The next cabin with open door, I put in my head,
and saw the mother with five children sitting upright
in bed, all putting on their " apology" for clothes ;
and certainly no small nest was ever fuller. The good
matron told me where I should find the house in ques-
tion. I lingered long enough to learn that the father
of this " joyous genealogy" had arisen an hour before
out of the same bed, and gone to his work. Ye downy-
bed sleepers what say ye to this ? What say you to
these your own countrymen ? And " who maketh thee
to differ ?" and " what hast thou that thou didst not
receive ?"

Enclosed among trees at the margin of the water,
was the festooned cottage of Dr. Power, adorned with
walks and shrubbery ; and at the door stood the titled
gentleman and his lady, about to enter their carriage
for an excursion to Cork. A letter of introduction
from a brother of his in New York gave me a welcome
reception, and stepping into their carriage, I went with
them to Cork, promising a return in a few days.

Mrs. P. is a genuine American, a daughter of the
well-known Judge Livingston of New York, amiable
and courteous to all. I was proud to find in one of my
own country so much kindness, so much affability in
rank so high. The doctor was an Irishman by birth,
but had spent much of his early life in America, and
imbibed so much of republicanism, that respectability
in coarse boots and jacket received as hearty a grasp
of the hand as when dressed in morocco or broad-
cloth.

At five, again seated at the hospitable board of Fa-
ther Mathew, where I was daily invited to dine while
in Cork. New guests were present each day, always
accompanied by his brother, who was an overseer of the
workhouse. He was a promoter of morality and good
order, and sympathized deeply in all the movements of
temperance.

Saturday^ February Sth. — The kind Mrs. Danker
called in her carriage, accompanied by a young lady
and the only son of Mrs. D., a boy of seven, with a

•256 CO. OP CORK. [CHAP. xiv.

basket of eatables, and I joined them on the promised
tour to the far-famed Blarney. Our first depot, after

seven miles' ride, was to the door of Father ,

his name quite out of mind by looking at the man him-
self— a genuine Irish priest of the olden coin. He met
us at the door with a three-cornered hat upon the top
of his crown at a respectable distance from his ears, and
so pliable at the corners, that it seemed bending to hear
whatever the divine might wish to communicate. He
carried a red full face, jolly countenance, with bone
and muscle aspiring to the weight of two hundred.
He gave us a true Irish welcome, and ushered us into
the kitchen till a fire would be made in his bed-room,
which served, too, for drawing-room and parlor. u I'm
allowed no wife and brats to privilege me with the
comforts of a separate parlor ; and a poor parish priest
must take his herring as he can get it. But this forty
days Lent ! My heart is scalt and my tongue parched
with this blackguard salt herring, and not a divil of a
fresh bit of beef are we allowed ; and so you see I can
set you no dinner but a bit of bread and cheese, and a
fish." Assuring him we had plenty in our basket, he
presented a bottle of wine with a volley of anathemas
on tobacco, declaring that " no man that used it was fit
for the divil."

The old priest was a great antiquarian, could tell us
all that had transpired in Ireland since the year 1, in
natural or political history, the nature of all sorts of
minerals and vegetables, and assured us that no man
living knew these things so well. And besides, he had
the best disciplined parish in all Ireland — the best fed
and the most honest people in all the world. I was
informed by others that this was all true.

" If ye'll take no dinner, though I hate Blarney, yet,
for the sake of this American, I'll go and show ye, and
walk with her while the ladies ride." For a mile my
wondering ears were crammed with tales of ancient
chieftains in Ireland's days of glory, till my ohs and
ahs of wonder growing fainter, he ordered me into the
coach, to leave him to take a shorter route across the

CHAP, xiv.] CO. OF CORK. 257

meadow ; and soon the fat priest, triangular hat, and
dog, were lessening in the distance*. But when we
overtook him, and he found that his company were not
allowed to take their carriage through the gate, his
indignation was roused, that menials dependent on him
should dare to use him thus.

Now came Blarney, the celebrated Blarney, where
many a name is carved ; where lords and ladies, pea-
sants and beggars, have strolled and sat. Here was
the seat pointed to me, where Mrs. Hall, the writer on
Ireland, rested ; and the old priest suggested the inspi-
ration I might receive by sitting there on the same
stone, by the same stone summer-house. The whole is
a romantic spot ; a hermit's cell of stone, where he slept
— his kitchen, where he cooked, and the grave where
he is buried, were all shown us. The rocking stone on
which Prince Desmond was crowned, some centuries
gone by ; ancient trees, seats of moss-covered stone of
the richest green, running wate^r, laurels and ivies,
green lawns spread out, made it a place of the most
pleasing interest. It belongs to the family of Jeffreys.
Lady Jeffrey has improved it much. She passed us
while we were admiring, and told our guide to show
us all that it contained. The grand castle containing
the Blarney-stone is a great curiosity, standing as it
does on an awfully high rock, overlooking the river far
below it, deep, and winding its way among trees and
thick grass. To me it was frightful to look out from a
loop-hole, and see the river below ; and to climb to the
top to kiss the Blarney-stone, stretching my neck out
of the window over the dizzy steep, would have been
madness, though I was told many a silly boy and girl
had done it.

When we had admired — for this was all we could do
as the entrance to the inmost apartments was closed —
we walked to the lake, and sat down to calm our ex-
citement by its placid waters, while the little son of my
friend was in playful glee sporting around us.

We must and did leave, our priest hurrying home to
arrange matters for our reception, while we went to

258 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP.XIV.

the cold-water establishment kept by Mr. Barter. To
describe the apparatus would be impossible. In a
circular, well-finished, thatched cottage, are the differ-
ent douche and shower baths, warm and cold, prepared
with the best finish. All manner of pouring and
showering, plungings and washings, have here appro-
priate fixtures. His spacious well-ventilated house
for the reception of invalids, does credit to the owner,
who told us that one hundred and sixty patients had
made the experiment, and every one had been cured,
and none but obstinate cases had applied. They are
allowed no ardent spirits, tea, or coffee ; and flesh meat
but once a day. The Doctor appeared to understand
his business well, and is apparently a worthy philan-
thropist. With regret I left this place, wishing for a
longer and better acquaintance with the principles of
this institution ; but night was gathering, and the
patience of the old priest would be exhausted. We
found him standing Jby the window of his bed-room,
where he said he had stood two hours, till his " heart
was scalded," watching our return. And more than
all, he had invited one of his curates and the doctor to
dine with us, on his fish dinner. They had disappoint-
ed him, and everything was wrong. Three women of
the peasantry were sitting upon the bed, by the side of
a table, regaling themselves with bread, cheese, and whis-
key, which the good Father assured us " they liked
right well."

We would not take dinner, and hot water was or-
dered for whiskey punch, and wine brought on. Now
the battle commenced ; the jolly priest touched his
three-cornered hat, at the same moment drinking my
health most heartily, while I in surly contempt turned
aside, without nodding to the salute. " Ah ! she's
disgusted, I know. Well, ma'am, if you'll appoint a
day, I will make a party in my barn as big as 1 did for
Mrs. Hall — one hundred and sixty — and you shall see
my fine parish. But this fish, ma'am, that we are
forced to eat through Lent, this fish, ladies! Why, I
kept Lent once, and ate nothing but salt herring, till I

.«AP. XIY.] ' CO. OP CORK. 259

was scalt entirely — I was a lump of salt, ladies" — then
swallowing a glass of hot punch, u I am sorry you don't
know what's good, ladies.'7 This toasting and drink-
ing were kept up till lateness and darkness both urged
a departure. We were accompanied to the door by the
loquacious priest, and a glass of hot punch for the
coachman, who, in answer to my remonstrances, an-
swered with an " Aw, and I shall drive ye the better
for wawrmin' my stomach a little." What can be said
to coachmen, and laboring men, that will be available,
when the " good creature" is presented by the holy
hands of the priest or clergyman ? We had a safe
ride home, though the rain was severe, and the night
dark, the road muddy, and the driver's noddle steeped
in hot punch. The point was settled on going home,
that the day had been a more than interesting one ; and
if the u well-disciplined parish" of this jolly priest bore
any resemblance to the training they had been under,
a dinner at the barn would have been one of no ordi-
nary relish.*

The next day heard a prosing common-place dis-
course from the baptist minister where I dined on the
potatoe and salt, in which he said he had no sympathy
for a religion that comes out in a certain color or cut of
the dress, or particular kinds of meat and drink. This
sentence was so entirely a digression from text or ser-
mon, that I pocketed the rebuke for not partaking of
the swine's flesh at his table, "and hoped to learn
better manners as I get along." After service, taking
a bundle of tracts, I walked to Cove. On my way, two
little cleanly-dressed girls were before me, reading a
.collection of Scripture admonitions from Father
Mathew ; approaching them, I asked, " What are you
reading, little girls?"

* I would not be unmindful of the kindness shown me by this
humorous priest, neither would I make or strive to make myself
witty at his expense ; but I visited Ireland to see people and priest
as they are, and here was too good a subject to be thrown away.
It was true Irish coin, and I valued it. not the less for appearing in
its native dress.

2GO CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xiv.

" Something, ma'am, that Father Mathew wrote."
They had come out of chapel, where they had obtained
this document from their priest. They were but chil-
dren of ten and eleven, and the girl who was reading
was no novice in the art. I presented each of them
with a little book, and thanking me, delighted, they
ran on to a company of girls before them, but soon re-
turned, saying, u Here are more little girls who can
read, and hav'n't you a book for them ? May be you
couldn't spare 'em, but they would be very glad of
one." Her interesting manner so won upon me, that
she might have drained my basket, had not an older
one in the party checked her importunity. My com-
pany was now quite numerous, for men, women, and
children were following in my train. I gave them each
a book, and walked on to the next village. All who
accompanied me disappeared among the cottages,
saying, " God speed ye," and left me alone. In a
moment the two whom I first accosted, came out, and
said, " We are goin' on a message to the bridge, and
will be with you a bit." The bridge was passed, it
was getting dark, and I said, "you had better return,
your parents may chide you." "No," said the young-
est of but nine years old, " ye are lonely and the
night'll be on ye, and we'll go with ye to the town.
We'd as lieve go with a stranger as with one of our
own." The artless simplicity with which she said this,
and the expression of kindness which lighted up her
countenance when she spoke, strongly inclined me to
take her in my arms, and snatch her away from a land
where the poor must be kept in their rank because they
are poor.

The instinct of kindness which is so strong in the
children of the peasantry, is remarkable throughout the
country, and offers to the observing stranger a redeem-
ing substitute for all other privations. My little com-
panions took me in sight of the town, and pointing
forward, " and ye'll find the ferry on a bit," said " God
speed ye," and scampered away, with my heart in gal-
loping speed after them.

CHAP, xiv.] CO. OF CORK. 261

The ferriage was a penny, which was given on
entering the boat. Stepping ashore, I was accosted
with, " Four pence, ma'am ; four pence is the ferriage
you must pay me." " You did not know, sir, a yankee
knows full well when the fare is paid." " You're a
thief," said a countryman, " let the woman pass on,"
and the crowd gave way to allow me to go through.
This was taking the advantage of the lone stranger,
and quite the other side of the glowing picture presented
by the little girls.

A half mile took me to the desired haven of Doctor
Power's, and I felt as if I were by an American fireside
where peace and good order prevailed. Here I passed
a week, where everything was done for my comfort.
The children were a source of diversion and interest,
being talented, intelligent, and kind-hearted, Under
the superintendence of a judicious mother, a kind
father,, a sensible experienced grandmother, and good
governess, they must improve. A dancing, drawing,
and music master weekly attended, dancing in Ireland
being considered a necessary part of education, even
by many of the church. None of the higher class
ever omit it, and the lower so manage, that at an early
age the peasantry spend much time in dancing to the
bagpipe, or the discordant vocal performance of some
rustic. " It's all the sport the like of us have," said
one who invited me to a field dance. Old and young,
priest and people, participate, approve, or disapprove as
the case may be.

My stay in this family was protracted, from a reluc-
tance to leave a society which had become doubly
endearing from what I had and must again encounter
in my tour through Ireland. For, though 1 had been
treated very kindly in good families, yet I had found
few where the household management had been so
home-like ; where a genteel lady would go into her
kitchen, and prepare with her own hands the nice dish
for her guests ; where laborer and animal shared in
that kindness, which, though easy to bestow, yet is

CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xr.

seldom manifested where wealth and fashion pre-
dominate.

CHAPTER XV.

Cloyne— Difference between Upstarts and the really Wellbred— Practical Proofs
of the same — Wonderful Natural Caves — City Jail of Cork — Humane Governor
— Prison Discipline — Taking leave of a good man — Character of Father
Mathew— No Monopoly in Orthodoxy— A Night in Bandon— A Peasant Family
employed, a rare sight in Ireland — Arrival at the miserable town of Bantry.

Saturday, February 15th. — Mrs. P., her mother, and
two children accompanied me in their carriage four
miles to the ferry, leaving me three miles to walk to
Cloyne. I had letters of introduction from the govern-
ess to a couple of families in high life ; the first, born
in obscurity, the second of princely descent. u You
will see," said my friend, " in these two families the
extremes of silly pride and genuine unostentatious
nobleness of character — where if worldly distinctions
claim any share in merit, they are the legitimate
owners of a great share." A hurried walk, in some-
what an uneven and uninviting scenery, brought me
at last to Cloyne. Making my way by inquiry, the
house was pointed out, and a stupid servant took my
letter, saying, " The young ladies are out," but soon
returned from the kitchen, saying they had gone to
meeting. She had left the note with a brother of the
young ladies, who had broken the seal, and after a half
hour of most tedious suspense, I regained the note, and
went away to a neighboring house. I was soon called
for by the sisters, who invited me in, and the first
question after being seated was, " Is this the way the
Americans dress ? Indeed I thought they dressed very
tawdry." " This is the dress which Americans would
wear when travelling, madam." The character of
Americans now went through a fiery ordeal. A gen-

CHAP, xv.] CO. OF CORK.

tleman had lately returned from New York, who testified
he had seen Irish servants at balls, among the highest
classes ; and had at parties seen pies with crusts an
inch thick, and so tough he could not bite them. So
much for American dress, American republicanism, and
American cookery, as a preface.

As Cloyne could boast of some antiquities, I was
conducted to see the most remarkable, and the church
built in 600 by the Catholics first claimed our atten-
tion. This church is now fitted up for Protestants,
and retains as much of its ancient appearance as pos-
sible, claiming to be one of the noblest works of anti-
quity. The hieroglyphics on the stones under which
the dead are deposited, and many remains of ancient
workmanship, tell emphatically for the taste of the
ancients, as well as the passing away of all that is
earthly. The chapel where service is performed con-
tains the bishop's throne, which by some amalgamation
has been doomed to be the seat where all bishops,
either Protestant or Catholic, must be ordained.
Tablets, ancient and modern, are upon the walls of the
aisle and church ; the aisle is the width of the church,
and longer than the chapel itself, and seems to be waste
entirely. Next to the bishop's throne, my young heir-
esses told me was their pew, claiming to hold the highest
rank in the church !

We next prepared for an ascent into the tower,
which is the most complete of any in Ireland, built by
nobody knows whom, nobody knows when, and nobody
knows for what purpose. It is now used for hanging
a bell, to call people to church. We ascended a flight
of steps to the height of 102 feet, and had a most
commanding view of town and adjacent country ;
but so perpendicular were the stairs, that 1 was tole-
rably crippled for two days following. It was night
when we reached the domicile of these newly estated
misses, who did all that was rational to make me com-
fortable, so far as eating and sleeping were concerned,
minding to entertain me with the out of the way vul-
garities of New York, its common-place magistrates,

264 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xv.

its little respect to rank and fortune ; assuring me that
their authority was good, emanating from an assistant
editor of Gordon Bennett. But Sabbath morning was
the test of the civility of these religious housekeepers,
for they assured me they were communicants in the
church. As the bell was ringing, the eldest observed,
" you will stay at home with me to-day, I am not going
to church."

" Why stay at home ? You say your minister is a
good preacher, and why should I not go to hear him ?"

" O, the people stare so much at strangers."

" What, in the old refined town of Cloyne, and where
the people, you say, are quite religious ! Surely
they do not go to worship God, if they are so prover-
bial for staring at strangers that they must be kept
away !'' I waited with bonnet and coat on, till the
bell ceased, and then inquired, " have the sisters
gone ?"

" O yes, they would not stay till the services com-
menced, because people stare so."

" I will make my way alone," was my answer ; and
the polite sexton, wishing to show a stranger all due
respect, escorted me through the church, and showed
me into the honorable pew next the throne, where the
two young prudes were seated, with prayer-book in
hand, so intent on their devotions that they heeded me
not, till I called at the foot of the stairs leading to
their chamber to say " Good bye." The two elder
sisters had prepared me a good dinner, and received me
on my return with much cordiality ; and as my visit
was now terminated, the eldest sister said, " You must
not walk to Mrs. Fitzgerald's. We have a good jaunt-
ing-car, and will send our man to convey you thither."
But listen, reader ! The jaunting-car proved to be a
cart, with a bunch of oaten straw for a seat, and when
all was equipped, the elder sister said, " We wish you
to tell Mrs. Fitzgerald that you rode on our jaunting-
car to the lodge ; and be sure you get off at the lodge,
and she will not see you !"

This was too much, and indignantly I said, u I won't,

CHAP, xv.] CO. OF CORK. 265

I will not lie for any one ;" ashamed at the silly pride,
but more at the impiety of the eldest, who acted as mis-
tress of the family, and who ten minutes before, while at
my dinner, had been telling me of her late conversion to
the love of the Christian religion.

This was a fair specimen of many such, started by
accident into an estate. These daughters had lately
become heiresses to an inheritance by the death of a
grandfather, who having no lawful heir, left his patri-
mony to their father, his illegitimate son. The daugh-
ters, wishing to get into society to which by birthright
they were not entitled, endeavored u by hook and by
crook" to make up for all deficiencies of high blood,
which in Ireland is the ultimation of all silly aspirants
to nobility. It is not her strong forte, but her weak
side, her silly, her eifectual drawback to real excellence,
especially in woman. The Irish women, were it not for
this discrepancy, would stand out as a model of all that
is dignified in their sex ; for, wherever can be found the
legitimate possessors of princely birth and education,
there is found a dignity, blended with the most refined
affability, which makes the meanest dependent feel she
is in presence of a protector.

Saying a long and lasting adieu, not forgetting the
absconded prudes who had kept themselves secluded
from sight since their return from church, I ascended
the cart, which would have been declined had not rain
and stiffness, occasioned by climbing the tower, made it
imprudent to undertake a two miles' walk. The driver,
true to his trust, dropped me at a respectful distance
from the lodge, in sight of the mansion, which was on
the top of a hill in a place called u Rock View." Here
was a genuine noble family, of the true Irish race, of
olden blood, wealthy, unsophisticated, unassuming, and
condescending. The mother, a widow, with eleven
children, all of whom she had well educated, and elevated
to respectability in different stations in life, was in the
midst of her household, as the centre of attraction to
which they were all drawn. With courtesy they re-
ceived me as the bearer of an introductory note from
12

266- CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xv.

a friend, and as a stranger. The accomplished sons
and daughters of this family alluded not to any higher
lineage of their own than the meanest peasant. Their
religion was Roman Catholic, but had I not seen a
crucifix in the daughters' bedroom, I should not have
known it.

Monday. — I visited the great rock, from which the
place receives its name, and which contains a valuable
marble quarry. The laborers, some years since, had,
in excavating the rock, found caves of immense ex-
tent, which are objects of peculiar interest. One into
which I was shown had a narrow entrance, widening
as you advance, and in somewhat a ziz-zag direction,
until it brings you into rooms ornamented as if done
by a chisel, these ornaments many of them hanging
from the ceiling. Here are seats like small benches ;
an altar which had been much defaced by the ruthless
hands of visitors carrying away pieces of the candle-
stick, &c. These chambers of imagery had been ex-
plored to the distance, some said, of a quarter of a
mile, by the aid of a lantern, and no end yet found.
The cave, from continued rain, was covered with three
feet of transparent water, which had percolated
through the stones, and I could only set my foot upon
the rough side, and put in my head, and sing, which
produced a long and sonorous echo, so that it could be
heard at a great distance. These caves altogether are
a wonderful and beautiful curiosity, and have given
rise to a multitude of legends by the superstitious, and
are still considered, as sacred, because they have been
the habitation of chieftains and fugitives from justice,
or saints to do penance. The top and sides of the
cave, in many places, appeared as if icicles had been
formed and congealed upon the rock, lying in parallel
lines, and shining like polished ivory. Nature cer-
tainly must have been sitting alone and undisturbed
for centuries, to have cut and carved such a spacious
hall.

But caves, Rock View, and the kind-hearted Fitz-
geralds must be left ; and I returned to the house to

CHAP, xv.j CO. OF CORK. 267

prepare for a departure. But rain prevented, and
another pleasant evening was passed with this hospita-
ble family. Early in the morning my breakfast was pre-
pared, a respectable carriage made ready, and I .was sent
to the steamer, with my passage paid to Cove. This
excursion was not a lost one. The two families where I
stopped were stereotyped editions of every family I had
then, or have since seen, in liko conditions throughout
the country ; and so marked are these characteristics,
that an observer need seldom mistake, without once in-
quiring the pedigree.

I must again leave ; the constant adieus had become
quite painful, and I knew when I should leave the
family of Dr. Power, that privations and fatigues must
attend me. My stay here had been the rest which was
needed. No bustle of parties, but a quiet calm sitting
down in the midst of a well-regulated family, where
peace, comfort, and intelligence resided ; where walking,
reading, thinking, talking, eating, and sleeping, had
their appropriate places. The kindness of the people of
Cork will be had in everlasting remembrance ; it will
not wear out, but grow brighter by use. I said " good
morning," and went out for ever from the beautiful
Cove of Cork ; leaving behind many a grateful remem-
brance, which none but a stranger can fully under-
stand.

Thursday. — Mrs. Danker treated me with a visit
to the city and county jails, which were so entirely
novel and intricate in their windings, that I could not
describe them to a stranger. Perfect order and clean-
liness prevail. From ten to five a school is kept open
for men and boys, whether criminals or debtors ; and
from twelve to two for women. In the county jail we
found but one chapel for Catholics and Protestants,
where all assemble and hear a Protestant sermon. la
the city jail is a chapel for each. The exterior of the
city jail is beautiful, built of stone tastefully arranged.
The panes of the windows were small, and concealed
the dismal appearance of the iron grates within. The
governor was a man of sense and feeling, and said

268 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. IT.

he often felt it his duty to mitigate the punishment of
prisoners, when he found good conduct, and granted
them what little indulgences were in his power. When
he first took charge of the institution, he found many
boys in a room, quite happy with their lot ; but putting
them in separate cells soon sobered them, and had the
most salutary effect ; for the Irish, he observed, have
a great fondness for society, and a superstitious hor-
ror of ghosts and fairies. The number of boys, he added,
had quite diminished since he made this regulation ;
but he remarked that solitary confinement for adults
was a dangerous and in many cases a fatal punishment ;
the minds of very few, if any, could bear it with safety.
They had sent him one, he said, to be confined in a soli-
tary cell for a fortnight, prohibiting any one to speak to
him in the time. He stayed a week, but so injured was
his intellect, that he had no doubt another week would
have made him an idiot. Where they are ignorant and
untutored, they had the most dismal forebodings and
dread ; the mind having nothing on which to feed, but
what was of the most gloomy if not of the most frightful
kind. A celebrated and experienced English judge has
declared, that he should never sentence any to solitary
confinement.

The prisoners in this prison, when not at study, are
at work at various mechanical trades; the women wash-
ing, spinning, and sewing. They have gardens and
beautiful walks, where they are allowed at stated times
to go and recreate themselves. The ridiculous tread-
mill, too, is a part of the punishment, where three hours
a day they must step to no available purpose. When
man takes punishment into his own hand, he has so lit-
tle of the wisdom of God in the distribution, in the
quantity as well as the quality, that he makes serious
and irreparable mistakes. The barbarous relic of a
treadmill is a standing testimony, that Christian nations
who practise it need to learn the first principles of civi-
lization.

Friday. — A day's ramble through mud and rain
made me but little wiser and no better, and stopping

CHAP. xv. J CO. OF CORK. 269

at Father Mathew's I dined with him for the last time.
He expected to leave town the next day, and I to do the
same, never to return. I felt at leaving this good man,
that I was leaving one whose like I should not meet in
any other place. " I hope to meet you again," was the
simple farewell, with a " God bless you." The remem-
brance of his unabating kindness can never die, and the
least I can do is to leave one page in my journal as a
just memorial of his worth.*

Father Mathew, taken in the aggregate, is a cha-
racter which must put the linger of silence on the lip of
even bigotry itself. If any one finds fault, it must be
because his unceasing unostentatious acts of goodness
rebuke his own sluggishness. He unites the meekness
of a Moses with the unyielding firmness of a Paul,
and while he reasons with severity on temperance, and
a " judgment to come," before a worldly-minded Fe-
lix, he dashes in kind sprinklings of mercy to the re-
penting prodigal who says. "Father, I have sinned."
While he shows " mercy with cheerfulness," he forbears
not the deserved caution or rebuke, where the recipient
may have caused his own sufferings by imprudence.
While the rich guest at his table feels a subdued
respect, the poor feels he is in presence of one by
whom he is remembered with that condescending kind-
ness, which narrows the awful gulph too often fixed
between the rich and the poor. While universal praises
are falling on his ear, and the multitude are saying,
" It is the voice of a God and not of a man," like the
angel before whom John was about to fall and worship,
he says, " See thou do it not."

Like the eagle, the nearer he approximates to the
sun, the clearer his vision, and the less the squibbings
of the marksman affect him — so, as his heaven-born
towering mind goes from glory to glory in his lofty
moral flight, the adulations and censures of men die on

* In ray remarks on this man I have consulted no taste, no
opinion, and no religion but my own ; and if any think
me a heretic, I can only say " what I have written, I have
written. "

270 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. XT.

his ear like the echo of the mountain sportsman, or
the distant murmur of the waterfall. When he speaks
in a crowd, it is not that the eloquence of his tongue or
the happy figure or turn of a period may be admired ;
and when the loud cheerings drown his voice, the light-
ing up of his countenance is not that of inflated vanity,
but a grateful manifestation of approbation that his
brethren can appreciate the worth of that cause which
lies so near his heart. Though cradled in the lap of
affluence, he is as unostentatious of pedigree as the
shepherd boy, who claims no descent beyond the thatch-
ed cabin that gave him birth. Though the weight of
an intemperate world is rolled upon him, yet he forgets
not the wants of the humblest menials, nor suffers the
smallest favor to go unrequited. Consistency is the
sheet anchor which keeps all steady. His house, though
the resort of the great and noble, has no tawdry display
of finery, nor rich gildings, serving only as useless orna-
ments of family greatness. His religion is truly catho-
lic, dealing no anathemas to the dissenting who may
differ from his creed in belief or practice ; and his
whole life, though one of daily self-denial, is an even
tenor of chastened patience and cheerfulness. He has
wiped more tears from the face of woman, than any
other being on the globe, but the Lord Jesus ; and
thousands of lisping infants will bless the providence
that gave them an existence in the same age with Father
Mathew. May God give him length of days, and a
crown of glory in heaven, which shall shine as the stars
for ever and ever !

Going from Father Mathew, I met a kind lady at
whose house I had spent a night, and accepted an invi-
tation to turn into a chapel, and hear a sermon by an
old priest who was a great favorite of hers. The sub-
ject was the suffering of Christ, and the text, " My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" In dis-
cussing it he said, the necessity of Christ's sufferings
consisted in the entire inability of a self-destroyed finite
being repairing an infinite loss, and making any atone-
ment which could satisfy Divine Justice. That a gin-

CHAP. xv.J CO. OF CORK. 271

ful being could not do a meritorious act. That all he
could now do, he owed to God before he fell, and that
all and the only hope of the sinner was now the cross,
and warned all to flee to the strong hold while they
were " prisoners of hope." In conclusion, he said he
had in a long life attended many death beds, and the
lamentations of the sinner were not so much that he
had been an immoral man, as that he had neglected
the " great salvation ;" that he puts off the great work
of repentance till to-morrow, when salvation is offered
only to-day. I was not prepared to hear so orthodox a
sermon in Lent, and when I went home mentioned it
to the Protestant lady where I lodged, who informed
me that this old man was second to none but Father
Mathew in alms-deeds, and was considered a faithful
preacher, even by those who had no fellowship with the
Romish Church.

Saturday, 22d. — I made preparation for leaving
Cork, but the kind Mrs. Fisher persuaded me to stop
till Monday, and refused any compensation for the long
time I had been with her. What shall I say of the
kindness manifested to me in Cork ? This city had not
lost its civilization by being civilized. In all other large
towns in Ireland I had noticed, the more wealth and
show, the less kindness and urbanity of manners. Cork
is ranked as high or higher in literature than any city in
Ireland, and its management is quite under the jurisdic-
tion of the Roman Catholics.

Monday, 24th. — Go I must. Mrs. Danker called,
and said, u if possible I will see you at the coach."
When I arrived, she was in waiting with two or three
other ladies, and when I was snugly seated in the car-
riage, she again gave me her hand, putting into mine a
pound note. The coachman gave me no time to thank
her, and thus was an additional debt of gratitude incur-
red, which I shall never pay. A supply of oranges had
been purchased by the ladies, and I was pursued by a
lad throwing them into the coach for many yards after
we had entered the main street, to the no small amuse-
ment of the lookers-on.

273 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. XT.

Bandon was my place of destination, at least for a
night, about twenty miles from Cork ; and with a note
from Mrs. Danker to a friend, who would show me to
a lodging placo, I alighted from the coach. The dwell-
ing was found, but 1 was admitted no further than the
hall. The letter was read and I was pointed to a
house over the way — the lady had no room ; to another —
no room ; to a third — no room. I returned, and stood
upon the steps of the door — no invitation to walk in.
The young lady insisted that I should go to a public-
house. In the meantime she sent a boy to three sup-
posable cases : all refused. It was now ten o'clock.
The servant accompanied me to a distant hotel, where
I was received, and left my muff in pledge while I
returned to the coach office for my luggage. The
keeper of the coach-house inn kindly returned with
me, and we were met at the door by a young lady, say-
ing, u your room is taken, and we cannot accommodate
you."

I seriously feared my complaisant guide would take a
freak, when he found that I had utterly been refused by
so many, and leave me to make my way as best I could.
But he invited me to his well-regulated house, and I
stopped the next day and night on account of rain ; and
for my vexatious reception in the town, he saic| I should
pay nothing in Bandon. This is a handsome town of
about twelve thousand inhabitants ; formerly Protes-
tants, but now mostly Catholics. It was once famed
for the weaving of corduroy and tickens, but all have
gone down, leaving the town like many of its sisters in
Ireland, sitting idle without employment.

The inn-keeper was an Englishman, and showed his
attachment to Ireland by having resided in it twenty-
five years, and marrying three Irish ladies since living
in the country, besides having one buried in England.
The English, though not th.e greatest admirers of Ire-
land as a whole, yet seem to have no objection to the
Irish ladies for wives ; and in this they certainly show
good taste.

Wednesday morning.— The town was all in mourn-

CHAP, xv.] CO. OF CORK. 273

ing for the sudden death of Father M 'Sweeney, who
was a favorite among Protestants as well as among
Romanists. Shops were closed, and business sus-
pended in all parts of the town, and the mourners
went about the streets. In groups might be seen the
inhabitants, talking of his worth, and saying u the like
of him was not in all Bandon," and " the loss of him
will never be made up." A Protestant observed, he
was a " good adviser to his parish, and a peace-maker
in the town, and his memory will long be cherished by
us all."

Taking a walk far out of town, I went into a
miserable cabin, where two old women and their two
daughters were at their wheels, and a third old woman
carding. This was an unusual sight, for seldom had I
seen, in Ireland, a whole family employed among the
peasantry. Ages of poverty have taken everything
out of their hands, but preparing and eating the
potatoe ; and they sit listlessly upon a stool, lie upon
their straw, or saunter upon the street, because no one
hires them.

These simple-hearted women had never seen an
American before, and all work was suspended to give
me a thorough greeting, and to examine every part of
my clothing ; and when I took the cards from the old
woman's hands, and they saw I actually knew how to
use them, '* aw, God bless the crater, and she aint
above her business." Seeing about my neck a golden
locket, which I told them was a memento of the kind-
ness of Father Mathew, the old woman clasped it in
her hands most affectionately, with blessings upon my
head and on that of the u apostle," whose pledge she
had taken, and all her family with her. In every
cabin the name of Father Mathew is like music, and in
the greater part of Ireland he lives in the heart of both
lord and peasant. " Blessing, blessing on your head,
the cratur," as I left, was poured upon me, till I was
well out upon the street, u ye're a right wonderful
woman, and that ye are."
12*

274 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP, iv

At half past two a farewell to the kind English-
man's wife and children was given, and I was whirled
out of Bandon, amid ths din of saucy idlers, waiting
about the coach, and one bawled out, " Mistress, a six-
pence, and ye owe me a sixpence." When I was seated
on the coach, he had handed me my basket, which was
standing near by, and for this he demanded a fee. I
had paid a porter for his services, and this was wholly
an uncalled-for supernumerary The coaches and cars
make travelling one of the greatest evils encountered in
going through the country. • You are teazed till you al-
low them to do what you do not wish to have done, and
then abused if you do not reward them.

My company was not the most intelligent, but civil ;
even declining smoking for my accommodation, which
was a mortal sacrifice to an Irishman ; and had I not
been an American, fear I should have been puffed
most thoroughly. A talkative old man said he was
about sailing for America with four sons, who were
determined to go, and he should take the old woman
along with them, though she was " ould ;" but he
would not have her fretting herself after him, and "so,
lady, we will go together.'' He offered to find nie
a " dacent lodging," but left me when we reached
Bantry, to make it out at my leisure. I went into the
miserable coach-office, and saw poverty and desolation
portrayed in every part of the dwelling where the
family resided. The children were interesting, could
read, and giving them some little books, I begged the
good mother to direct me into some comfortable place,
as the night was dark, and 1 was a stranger. She sent
an intelligent boy, who soon found a genteel house,
kept by three sisters and a brother, as a shop and
lodging-house. The nicely fitted parlor and bed-room
were inviting retreats, and here may I date the com-
mencement of all that was marvellous — all that was
romantic — all that was painfully exciting, and all that
was wholly indescribable in my tour through Ireland,
and I would say —

CHAP, xvi CO, OF CORK. 275

" If you have tears, prepare to shed them now."

Come, sit down with me, and weep over the sad deso-
lations of your stricken country; and while you weep,
reflect, when a righteous God shall make inquisition for
blood, if you have said, "be ye warmed and be ye
filled," while the garment was in your wardrobe, the
bread upon your table, and the word of life upon your

shelf what shall shelter your head from the avenger

of the poor ?

CHAPTER XVI.

Exploration in Ban try— Poverty, Wretchedness, and Filth of the Dwellings-
Grand Poorhouse standing unoccupied— Wigwam Row — My attendant, John
—Employment a Novelty—Beautiful Bay of Bantry— Glengariff— Bad choice
of a Lodging-house — A Motley Audience — No Refuge from the Staring —
Morning Levee— Lord Bantry's Cottage— Hospitality at the Gatehouse— Call
at my ill-chosen Lodgings.

WHEN about leaving Cork for Killarney I intended tak-
ing the shortest and cheapest route ; but Father Ma-
thew said, " If you wish to seek out the poor, go to Ban-
try ; there you will see misery in all and in every form."
I took his advice, went to Bantry, and there found a
wild, dirty sea-port, with cabins built upon the rocks
and hills, having the most antiquated and forlorn ap-
pearance of any town I had seen ; the people going about
not with sackcloth upon their heads, for this they could
not purchase, but in rags and tatters such as no country
but Ireland could hang out.

The night was dark and rainy when I reached the
town, and a comfortable parlor and cheerful fire hid
from my eyes the appalling desolation that brooded
without. The morning opened my eyes to look out
upon sights which, as I write, flit before me like hag-
gard spectres. I dressed, went forth, and made my way

276 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvi.

upon the rocks, found upon the sides of them some de-
plorable cabins, where smoke was issuing from the doors,
and looking into one, the sight was appalling. Like an
African kraal, the door was so low as to admit only a
child of ten or twelve, and at the entrance a woman put
out her head, with a dirty cloth about it ; a stout pig
was taking its breakfast within, and a lesser one stood
waiting at a distance. The woman crouched over the
busy swine with her feet in the mud, and asked what I
wanted ?

In truth, for a moment I wanted time to collect
myself before I knew what I wanted ; at last I told
her my errand was to see how they do in Ireland,
among the poor. " An' faith, you see enough on 'em
here." Looking in, I saw a pile of dirty broken straw,
which served for a bed for both family and pigs, not a
chair, table, or pane of glass, and no spot to sit except
upon the straw in one corner, without sitting in mud
and manure. On the whole, it was the most revolting
picture my eyes ever beheld, and I prayed that they
might never behold the like again. Leaving this
abode, I ascended the rock a little higher, and entered
a second. On the left hand of the door was a bank on
which lay a young man upon straw ; and upon a
couple of stools sat the master and mistress, waiting
the cooking of a pot of potatoes for breakfast. " Is
any one sick ?" " No, no, idle, idle," answered the
mother ; " nothin' to do, and so he lies in bed. The
old man here has not airn'd but a shillin' since St.
John's." " And how, do tell me, do you live ?" " We
gets our potatoe when we can, ma'am ; and that's all,
ye see." " So you live, because you can't die." " Just
so, lady ; because the Almighty God don't see fit to
take us away, an' we must be content with what he
sends us ; but sure, may we ask, what brought ye here
among these wild rocks ?" " To seethe poor of Ireland ;
and I hope to go through the country, and see them
all." " And ye'll have a long purse when ye return."
Supposing she alluded to money, I told her, " not a

CHAP. xvi.J CO. OF CORK. 277

pound, perhaps." " But ye'll have the whole chart of
Ireland, ma'am."

I looked at this woman, and at the appurtenances
that surrounded her. u The whole chart of Ireland,"
from lips that could neither read English nor Irish ! She
had a noble forehead, an intelligent eye, and a good
share of common sense; she had breathed the air of
this wild mountainous coast all her sad pilgrimage, and
scarcely, she said, had a " decent garment covered her,
or a wholesome male of mate crossed her lips, save at
Christmas, since the day she left her parents that
raired her." Telling them I wished some one to carry
my carpet bag to Glengariff, the old man said he had
a son as honest as any lad in Bantry, and he should
take it for a shilling ; the bargain was quickly con-
cluded. A lofty well-finished poorhouse was back of
these abodes of misery, and the old lady leaving her
potatoes showed me up the slippery path-way to the
gate. She had said there was no fire but in the
kitchen and the school-mistress' room ; I replied that
this was not the case in any other poorhouse I had
visited, and I should like to see it for myself. When
we reached the gate it was closed, and no admittance ;
the keeper was not there, and not a person in it, and
never had been, though all things had been ready for
a year; the farmers stood out, and would not pay the
taxes. The old lady was right respecting the farmers
and their taxes, but was quite confused about the fires
and fire-places. The poorhouse was certainly the
most respectable looking of any building in Bantry ;
and it is much to be regretted, that the money laid out
to build and pay a keeper for sitting alone in the
mansion, had not been expended in giving work to
the starving poor, who might then have had no occasion
for any house but a comfortable cottage.

I waded about the town an hour more to find, if
possible, something more tolerable ; but disheartened
I returned to my lodgings, which were the only oasis
in this woe-begone place. The next day found matters
no better, and after again wading through a few streets,

278 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvi.

I returned disgusted at the nausea, which was sicken-
ing in the extreme. I left an Irish Testament where
the man of the family could read Jrish well, and where
no Bible had ever been. The peasants in this part of
the country are not so afraid of the Scriptures if they
speak Jrish, because they attach a kind of sanctity to
this language.

The next morning looked a little propitious, and I
hurried to Wigwam Row, to apprise the boy that he
must take his potatoes, and be ready for the journey.*

This Wigwam Row is entitled to a little explanation.
It consists of a row of cabins, built literally upon a
rock, upon the sloping side of a hill, where not a
vestige of grass can grow, the rock being a continued
flat piece like slate. The favored ones who dwell
there pay no rent, having been allowed in the season
of the cholera to go up and build these miserable huts,
as the air upon the hill was more healthy. And there,
like moss, to the rocks have they clung, getting their
job when and where they can, to give them their
potatoes once in a day, which is the most any of them
aspire to in the shortest winter days.

I found them still in their nest, and after much
beating and battering at the crazy door, the old man
peeped out, calling, " WTho's there ? and won't it do as
well for me to go?" " I have no choice," replied I.
u And will ye get breakfast on the way ?" This was
a modest hint that I should give him breakfast, though
it had been adjusted that he should take his before we
left. " I shall return and take mine, and you must
take yours at home in the meantime." 1 said this to
keep him to his bargain, intending to give him some
when he should call. " In an hour,'' said the old man,
u I will be with ye." The hour had not expired when

* I could not but say when standing on this spot, ll How long,
O Lord, how long" can such dreadful sufferings — such odious filth
be allowed upon a world like this ! Sure some volcano, some
hailstone, or some fire, some overflowing flood, some miasma, or
some earthquake, must obliterate them from sight, and "that right
early."

CHAP. xvi.J CO. OF CORK. 279

the old man was at the door, with " We had better
take the airly part of the day." He had not stopped
for his potatoe, and more than probably he had none,
and must get the shilling before the potatoes could
come. Dividing the breakfast with the old man, I
hurried through mine, and the wallet with all appurte-
nances was swung upon a stick, and snugly adjusted
upon the back of my fellow pedestrian. The modest
sisters wished all prosperity, giving a smile as they
saw us go out. Men, women, and children had watched
the movements of John, and met us upon the walk as
an escort. u John, which way? and what now? sure
and ye aint goin' to lave us?" John was a man of
some independence, and a little tact withal ; and he
managed to let them know by a slight toss of the head,
and a significant look, that he was about business
which interested the parties concerned, and should
give account of none of his matters. Ludicrous as the
scene might be, and playful as seemed their jokes, yet
the real truth was affecting — John was about to earn
a few pence, and the favor was a great and enviable
one. They had looked and sauntered about the mise-
rable town for days and weeks, for such a boon, in
vain, and now the lucky John had drawn the prize !

We soon left sight of Bantry, for mud retarded not
my progress, and we hurried on to the no small amaze-
ment of all we met, who in multitudes were going to
town for market, But the Bay of Bantry — the bay of
all bays, stretched out on our left with its islands,
and the rugged rocks on our right, so attracted my
notice, that what with gaping on either hand, and
looking now and then how to avoid the mud, my
gallant John would be far before me. He would often
sit down upon a wall, till I was within speaking
distance, then giving the wallet a further hitch upon
his shoulder, would rise and hasten on, thus not
leaving me a moment for rest. At last I contrived to
lighten my burden, by taking my huge black muff,
which was quite the gaze of men and women, as well
as the fright of all the children, in mountain and glen,

280 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. x?r.

and drawing it up closely at one end, so that the Irish
Testaments that were in it could ride safely, I called
to the old man, and begged him to allow me to fasten
the muff to his wallet, as the day was getting warm,
and it quite impeded my travelling. Hanging at one
end, and being large and made of the fur of the black
bear of the American forest, it made John an object of
still greater interest to the wondering peasantry, who
all seemed to be quite acquainted with him. He was
born on one of the islands of the bay, and had lived
all his days within the sound of its waters. u And
what is this, John ? and what sort may the cratur be
that's hanging at your back ?"

I now succeeded in keeping pace with my guide for
a time, and by dint of management kept John in
tolerable mood. He would now and then mutter out
that the place was a " devil of a starved one, that not
ahap'orth could be got if the heart was broke." Taking
the hint, I presented him with a piece of bread from
my muff, which appeased for a little his clamor, and
we pursued our journey amicably together. But no
happiness is unalloyed. On a sudden, a terrible crash
was heard, and lo ! the handle of the basket had given
way. Out tumbled books, Wicklow pebbles, &c., and a
complete overturning of all the contents of the wallet
took place. With strings and pins, matters were again
adjusted in a tolerably good way ; but John, in fasten-
ing all together, had the shrewdness so to manage that
the muff was again turned over to me. Drawing near
the town, a cabin of tolerable appearance met our eyes,
and the tidiness of the abode was now held out to me
as a bait. " She can give as clane a bed as any woman
in the kingdom." I heeded not, till the hotel of
Glengariff burst upon our view. Here the praises
were redoubled — " Ye'd find every convanience, and
as chape as any lodgin'-house in all the country." I
had, before leaving Bantry, been told there was a
private lodging that would serve me better than the
hotel, and I determined if possible to spend thf> Sab-

CHAP, xvi.} CO. OF CORK. 281

bath there. It was a sad mistake. John was the bet-
ter judge, and should have been obeyed.

The lodging-house at length appeared, and before a
filthy door were horses, men, and asses in thick array.
John with his wallet squeezed through, and I followed
before the passage was closed. "This is the way,
ma'am," leading me up to a dark whiskey deposit,
entered by a hole a few feet high. In this place stood
a dirty woman pouring muddy coffee into bowls, and
sending it to a mass of ragged countrymen, who were
drinking it without milk. She was occasionally inter-
rupted by a call for hot punch ; " Going, going," was
the answer, and going they were in very deed. This
lodging was the height and depth of all that I had seen
in depravity. "Can I have some boiling water?"
" When the men are sarved, ma'am." John had seated
himself on a bench, quietly smoking, past all hurry,
though in the greatest haste for the last three hours.
Saying to him, as he was in fear of night, he had better
take a loaf of bread, and not wait for the kettle.
" Aw, I'll wait for the kettle, plaise God." The kettle
came, a bowl of cocoa and a loaf of bread were soon
dispatched. " Take care of yourself and your things,
ma'am, or ye'll not have a hap'orth belonging to ye,"
he whispered as he went out.

When John was sitting upon the wall, eating a piece
of bread, by the way, I asked, " do you expect to go
to heaven r" " No, ma'am, I shall never go to heaven.
The poor, ma'am, are great sinners, and must not ex-
pect to go there." " The poor will certainly go to
heaven, if they repent." He still insisted, " the poor
are very wicked, and must not expect to go there.
No, no, ma'am, I shall not get there." As he was
departing, I said, "John, I shall see you no more, and
I beg you to go to Christ, and be saved." He paused,
resting on his stick ; then giving me a piercing glance
of desponding bitterness, he shook his head, and
answered emphatically, " that can never be for me."
What had so firmly fixed this opinion, I could not nor
can I imagine, for it seems to be the prevailing conso-

CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvi.

latory belief of the peasantry in Ireland, that the poor
are in a much better way for heaven than the rich, and
they bear their poverty often with great patience,
because they shall soon be better situated. Not so with
John. His mind had been differently trained, and
though he seemed fixed in his belief, he made it a duty
to submit to his fate. I felt regret at parting with this
ignorant old man, for though not skilled in books, he
was a shrewd child of nature, and had been for half a
clay a more amusing and profitable companion, than a
college dandy, " fresh from the mint," could have
been.

I stepped back into the room, and for a few moments
gave the gaping multitude full scope for curiosity.
They stood before me, they sat down by my side,
they minutely examined my dress, they asked all sorts
of questions concerning America, — " an' may be ye
didn't know Mick Flanagan, or Pat Dogherty. An',
by dad, she's a dacent body, and she never come the
long way without a good bit in her purse," &c. When
the wonder began to flag, I put my luggage into the
care of the hostess, and went out to wander in the glen,
and by chance came upon an old bridge, quite decay-
ed, which is said to have been constructed by Crom-
well to march his army over when he wasted Ire-
land. The arches are still standing, and a foot-
path is over them, which has been crossed by every
tourist in the glen for a century or more. The name
of Cromwell by every peasant of Ireland is of hated
memory, and scarcely a decayed castle, bridge, or
abbey, but what the stranger is told, u this is the,doin'
of the blackguard Cromwell." Finding a cabin, which
from its size and appendages bore some signs of com-
fort, I ventured in, hoping something a little tolerable
might meet my eyes. But u four-footed beasts," if not
u creeping things,'' were here stalled and fed, and the
people were of the same kin with the house I had left.
1 made my way upon the top of the rocks overlooking
Bantry Bay, with a troop of ragged urchins in pur-
suit, and a young spruce dandy, who told me all he

CHAP. xvi.J CO. OP CORK. HJ83

knew of the marvellous till the dusk of evening warned
me back to my luggage and lodging. I recoiled at go-
ing in.

Ascending a rock overlooking the road, I had a view
of things if not unutterable, yet quite inconceivable.
Beneath me were a group darkening the street and air,
of all ages, from " the man of grey hairs" to the nurs-
ling at the mother's breast. Not an individual, man,
woman, or child, had on a whole garment, and many
of them, like " Joseph's coat," were variegated with
" many colors ;" patches of all shades, with thread of
all hues, adorned the limbs of these congregated
rustics, who had heard of my arrival, and had come
out to see the " wonderful body" that had left her
" country and kin to say the poor Irish." Looking
down upon them, my " eyes affected my heart." They
were God's creatures, made in his image, and bound to
the same tribunal with me ; thrown into different
circumstances, they had developed different traits,
and many among them might have occupied better
upon the little that had been given, than the more
elevated aristocrat who looked down upon them with
contempt. They looked up, some leaning upon their
spades, some crouching under heavy burdens, and all
silent as if waiting the opening of some oracle.
Singing a hymn in which all instinctively joined, if not
devoutly, I said a few kind words on the subject of
temperance, and the regret I felt that I should find
this glen given to the immorality of drinking, when a
great part of Ireland had become so sober. They
murmured a response — "by dad, she's right," and
slowly walked on, while I descended to enter the
lodging. I felt myself in a peculiar predicament, no
escaping from this forbidding stopping-place, and these
forbidding people ; it was a place and company quite
different from any I had seen even in Connaught. I
was pursued into the lodging-house, and' went through
a second and more fiery ordeal of staring. They came
nearer, urged me to "smoke a blast," or to "take a
drap," (notwithstanding iny lecture,) talked of my

CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvi.

coat and bonnet ; some bracing themselves against the
wall, some sitting close by my side, and others squat-
ting upon the ground at my feet. Fortunately for me,
the organ of fear is not so largely developed as in
some of more flexible texture, and my greatest suffering
arose from pity and disgust. " Can you give me a
few potatoes ?" Four were brought in a saucer, and
some dirty salt, pulverised with a knife, and likewise
put in a saucer. The company were all in attendance
till the supper was ended. Hoping to thin the group
in some way, I asked for water to bathe my feet. A
little was brought in a pot, and placed before me. u I
cannot use it here. Put it in the room," was the com-
mand.

" The room !" Reader, suppose you look in. This
room was up a broken stair-case, leading from the
kitchen. A dilapidated door with a broken latch, like
an inn among the far western wilds of America ; a
floor of loose boards, gaping wide between joints into
the kitchen below ; and all sorts of lumber, from the
three-legged chair, broken chest, and crazy cradle, to
the ploughshare, with the worn-out gear of the ass,
and basket for peat and manure. The bed and
etceteras are unmentionable, and in this varied pro-
fusion I was to spend the night. As my door was
past all fastening, a company at whiskey and cards, in
a chamber " near akin," at every pause in the whiskey
or play, would in turn push my door a little wider, and
look in. This continued till one o'clock, when I,
still sitting, knew by the u God bless you's," and
u ye'1.1 be late for the night," that the company were
retiring, and placed myself in a position to sleep, had
sleep been in attendance. But sleep or no sleep, the
Sabbath dawned pleasantly on this wicked den, and I
hoped to be first in the kitchen ; but to my chagrin a
goodly number were in waiting, and in ten minutes
from my landing at the bottom of the stairs, not less
than a score had arranged themselves, making sure of
a suitable stand or sit, where the most favorable gape
could be secured. Nor had one wasted a precious

CHAP, xvi.] CO. OF CORK. 285

moment too long at the toilet. Some stood with hair
erect, some with an apology for a shirt, and some with
remnants of coats ; some with waistbands sufficiently
strong to hold both hands and despairing legs, hang-
ing with a deadly grasp by a tatter here and there ;
some with dresses turned over their heads, and some
pinned about their waists ; some with cloaks, and some
with caps, and all with naked feet. They had all got
most quietly fixed, when I gathered up my effects, put
them in charge of the girl, and hurried into the glen,
stopping neither to warn nor rebuke. — A morning long to
be remembered.

Being told there was no church held in the place,
and that Lord Bantry was a Protestant, lord or no
lord, I determined to venture to his house, and if
possible spend the day with him. " He's a convairsa-
ble body, and 'he'll make ye right welcome," said one
that I passed on the way. At the gate-house, the
cleanly woman met me at the door, and kindly invited
me in to take breakfast. This unexpected courtesy was
more to me than she imagined or I could express, for I
had expected to spend the day fasting, probably among
the rocks in the glen, unless by good fortune the u con-
vairsable " lord should be pacific. The neat little cot-
tage, and cleanly- spread table, were such a contrast to
the den I had just left, that I felt that " mercy had
not clean gone for ever," and I was still within the
reach of something human. Breakfast being ended, a
little girl was sent with me to the top of a high rock,
in view of the cottage called Lord Bantry's " look-
out," from which the wonders of the glen are seen to
good advantage. Descending the rock, the little Mary
returned to prepare for chapel, and [ ventured to the
cottage of Lord Bantry. It had a picturesque thatched
roof in part, and was situated in a lawn free from rocks,
sufficient to distinguish it as the abode of the " lord of
the soil."

This valley of romantic wildness cannot be de-
scribed. To attempt a description of Glengariff would
be a waste of words. Writers of different nations have

CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvi.

told of its eagles' nests ; its huge rocks flung together
in all shapes, overgrown with moss and ivy ; its lakes,
rivers, and streamlets, its deep ravines and lofty moun-
tains. And yet Glengariff can never be understood but
by actual observation ; by walking or riding, by every
mode that ever man invented, with spy-glass and tele-
scope has it been explored, and yet beauties and won-
ders remain untold.

I sent my card in to the noble lord ; and he re-
turned it by the hunch-backed girl in attendance, who
civilly said his lordship was quite ill, was sorry he
could not see me, but would send a boy to show me
the curiosities of the glen. This was not the most
desirable nor the most profitable way to spend the
Sabbath, but stay in the whiskey-house I had left,
I would not, and from the gate where ^ I breakfasted
the family had gone to mass, and locked the cottage.
I followed the boy, who took me an intricate path,
and stationed me before the game-keeper's lodge, and
seated me upon a stone. The game-keeper's wife
invited me into a neat little parlor, and showed me
everything of interest about the mountain. She was
English, and quite unreconciled to stop in Ireland.
She was getting a Sabbath dinner, and showed me her
bee-hives ; and here I tried the strength of her hospi-
tality. Having been told that the English in Ireland
were not so courteous to strangers as the Irish, I made
a trial by saying, I had been told in New York that
Ireland abounded in honey, but I had not had the

food fortune to meet any, and I was quite fond of it.
he made no reply, nor offered me either milk, bread,
or honey. I have since met with many English who
were exceedingly hospitable, and hope I may have no
just cause of complaint against my ancestors, with whom
I am happy to claim affinity. When I reached the lodge,
the hospitality was repeated by the generous offer of a
room and board without any charges. What could be
kinder, and what could be cheaper ?

" The house where you stayed last night is not fit for
any human creature, and you cannot be in a worse

CHAP, xvi.] CO. OF CORK. 287

condition in any spot in the glen." " Blessed are the
merciful." This family were English, had lived in
Ireland twenty-five years, and had become so identi-
fied in every way with the country, that they pre-
ferred it to their own ; and no stranger could suppose
by their phraseology or warmth of heart, but that they
were of the genuine stock of Irish. They were Roman
Catholics.

Two days' rain kept me in the house, only giving
opportunity for a call at the Saturday night's lodging-
place to take my luggage. The man and his wife were
taking breakfast at eleven o'clock. He was a pledge-
breaker, and she a professed tetotaler, only taking
her hot punch when going to bed, and he a besotted
drunkard. When I told them why I left the house, and
represented to her the disgrace and sin of her employ-
ment, she left her bowl of tea, and went away. He
hastily arose, and took down a large Douay Bible from
a dirty shelf, over the kegs of whiskey, and only wanted
tiine to u discoorse me," to show both his knowledge of
scripture, and the lawfulness of his employment. " Dea-
con Giles' distillery" could not have shown greater zeal.
This wicked house had been, I was told, the ruin of the
glen. It had been five years before baptized by Father
Mathew, but he then gave pledges for a stated period,
when requested, and when the time had expired, many
rushed headlong into the fatal vortex. "They are too
much for me," said the poor priest, u since that publi-
can's house has been opened."

CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvn.

CHAPTER XVII.

Rambles in Glengariff— Household Manure— Kind Little Guide— A Gallant

Offer — Splendid Interior of the Slated House — A Rare and Lofty Larder

Perilous Transit— Wild Natives— Dwelling of the Three Sisters— Spiritual
Fallow Ground — Man sometimes behind the Lower Animals — The Author de-
livers a Short Sermon — Good-bye to Glengariff and the Hospitable Family of
the Ga ekeeper — Lakes and Mountains — Publican versus Priest — Ride among
Turf Baskets — Early Matrimony.

HEARING there was a Protestant school in a distant
part of the glen, with the guidance of the little " sure
futted'' niece of my benefactress, I made my way
thither. On our route we passed a couple of rocks,
celebrated for having been the abode of a family of
seven for three years and a half. Lord Bantry at last
built them a cabin, and turned them into it. This
novel habitation is composed of two rocks, meeting
over head, like the roof of a house, and so wide at bot-
tom that there was room for a bed-stead. A fire was
built by the side of the rock inside — u As all the world
might see," the smoke issuing from the apertures at
either end, according to the whim of the wind. The
upper ends of the rocks are so snugly joined, that they
could be closed with leaves and brush, as the occupants
might choose. It seemed impossible that the room
could contain seven living moving beings, with " all ap-
purtenances to boot ;" but so it did. The good woman
was often heard singing at her wheel in front of her
house, where she sat spinning by the side of a clear
stream, under branches of evergreens, while her five
ruddy children were playing around her. Many a
passer-by, on his way through the glen, turned in u to
see this great sight," and left a little in charity, which
kept these happy tenants more than content ; for it is
said they were quite unwilling to leave when the inan-
built-cabin was in readiness.

CHAP, xvn.] CO. OF CORK.

Our path was over rocks, through mud and bogs,
till we reached the abode of the Protestant teacher,
who was sick, consequently her school was suspended.
She had two infants, the youngest two days old, and was
living in the house of her husband's mother. Though
they could boast of Protestant rearing in the town of
Bandon, and were comfortable in land and cattle, yet
the cabin was a genuine dirty one, bearing the same
marks of degradation as their less enlightened neigh-
bors. The teacher showed some specimens of needle-
work, which were quite creditable, and conversed with
a share of good sense ; but the impress of the virtuous
woman, " who looketh well to the ways of her house-
hold," was not there. She had five pounds a year for
teaching, three of which were paid by a Protestant
society, the other two by the parents of the children.
It certainly told much for her philanthropy, to go upon
this desolate mountain, and " do what she could" for
the benefit of the wild mountaineers, for such a scanty
remuneration.

A bowl of stirabout, glowing in melted butter, was
presented by the mother, but I was not competent to
the undertaking. With much difficulty I persuaded
her to allow me to take my own way, for I had long
since been so divested of sectarianism, that Protestant
filth was no more palatable than Roman Catholic. I
here speak plainly, because neither the scantiness of
their means nor cabin made such intolerable house-
keeping necessary. We then visited a national school,
and here was a picture deserving a glen. A female
teacher first saluted us, with a company of girls before
her, plying the needle. " I taiches sowin', ma'arn, and
they gets along finely," presenting shirts they were
making. "But do you give no other lessons?" "I
doesn't, ma'am ; they can go to the master if they
wishes to larn raidin', but they says they bee's too
old."

The master was busy at his desk, his cap put on
with quite an air of dandyism, and the sly urchins
were cutting and carving for themselves. At last the
13

290 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvn.

stripling approached, welcomed me very civilly, and
added, u I am quite ill, am but young, and have much
to learn before I can expect a great salary." This was
good sense. His salary did not exceed ten pounds.
In short, the school, as a whole, was such a place as
every child should shun. A boisterous altercation
took place between the master and mistress about the
key of the closet, she insisting she would carry it
home, as she should be first in the morning, and want
the work ; he protesting for that very reason he would
not allow it, because he had articles that were valu-
able to him, and they should not be disturbed. She
threatened to acquaint the priest. " The sooner the
better, and ye'll find ye 're talking to a man of sense."
The children of the master, and girls of the mistress,
manifested, by the lighting up of the countenance,
that each was ready to fight for his or her own general ;
and we left, never learning how the battle was de-
cided.

Thursday. — Going out to call at the hotel, I turned
into a bye-path, and seeing a row of cabins, went to
one, supposing I could take a nearer route than the
public road, by inquiring the way. Putting in my
head, I saw misery doubly distilled. I at first was
met by two yearling calves, and there being no window
in the cabin, I could not well see into the interior,
and concluded that it was nothing less or more than a
cowhouse. But perseverance showed me it was the
abode of six full-grown mortals, master, mistress,
and four daughters, sitting upon stools before a peat
fire. On the left was a pile of manure, which the cow
and calves had been providing from the preceding
November. This manure each morning is pressed
down, and a little dry straw or leaves put over, thus
forming a solid mass, which being kept warm both by
pressure and a fire, the owners affirm, makes it much
richer. On the right was a board extending from the
corner of the fire-place, of sufficient length for a bed ;
and over this board, upon the ground, was straw
spread for the whole family's sleeping-place. The

CHAP, xvii.] CO. OF CORK. 291

furniture was a pot to boil potatoes, an old basket, a few
stools, and an old cupboard with plates, and —

u Broken tea-cups, wisely kept for show."

To my first inquiry, " can you tell me the way to
the hotel ?" I received no answer, all looking with
amazement at the first and only bonnet that had ever
looked in, and said good morning to them. Again I
asked the way ; the old man rose and said, " come and
I'll show ye," and led me to a path among the rocks.
" An' may be ye're a stranger, an' I'll not put ye out
of the way." Here was old patriarchal law, though I
was told they could neither read nor write. This hotel,
which the natives say is " dacent and proper," is quite
commodious, and, being the only one in the glen, com-
mands all the visitors from various parts of the world.
My Saturday night's entertainment was a just rebuke
for turning a deaf ear to the counsel of my friend John,
when he said, " ye couldn't do better, ye'll find every
convainience."

On my return, the kind little Mary, with clean apron
and nicely combed hair, was ready to accompany me
up the glen to the " Eagle's Nest ;'' and no nest
was ever more famed in history, as the reader shall
presently hear. On our way to this place we had a
river to cross without a bridge, and the late rains had
so swollen it, that the stepping-stones were covered.
Mary waded the stream, and I made my way over
rocks, bogs, and hillocks, till despairing of- success ; a
ragged peasant, driving a horse with two baskets
of lime across his back, called out to Mary, in Irish,
" I'll go and lift her across." He was old, and I did
not think it safe ; and besides, the kindness was too
great. He rolled up his pantaloons, waded the river,
and proffered his services in Irish. I declined ; when
he found a place where, taking me by the hand, he
helped me, at considerable peril, 'over the slimy rocks ;
and, ascending the precipitous bank, he braced his
feet, pulled me up the steep, and set me on terra firma.
He could not understand English, nor I Irish ; but he

CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvn.

understood the meaning of a few pennies put into his
hand, and seemed quite satisfied.

In half an hour we reached the slated house under the
mountain ; and, as a slated house is considered a step
in advance towards gentility, and the tenant of this had
leased the whole " Eagle's Nest," and all were sub-
tenants under him, he deserves a conspicuous place in
the history of this glen. The entrance of the house
was blockaded by an old worn-out horse, with two
baskets of lime on his back, which the mother and two
daughters were striving in vain to let down. The
maidens stepped aside, and we crawled under the straw
bridle of the horse, and entered a room, which could
boast the same lineage as the one I had visited in the
morning, only the manure was not so evenly patted
down, but was in isolated hillocks about the room, and
the calf and pig were leisurely walking between them.
The conveniences were all near the fire, but the old lady
made a breakage of sufficient width to place a stool, arid
a piece of turf to elevate my feet from the ashes. Here
I was seated, with all the family around me upon the
hearth, except a boy, whose gaping curiosity could not
draw him from a ladder on which he was swinging in
one corner of the cabin.

" Do you read Irish ?" I asked the woman. With a
pause of astonishment she looked upon me, then upon
her girls, and, with a child-like laugh, said, " I read !
the like of me read ! Not a hap'orth of Irish or Eng-
lish." The daughters were in like condition, and as
much diverted at my strange question as the mother.
Speaking of the goodness and mercy of God, they
sobered at once ; and after talking a few moments, we
left without presenting any books, as they could not
read.

We tried another cabin ; in like condition, only
darker, and the roof thatched. Then attempted a
third, but here the pile of manure was so elevated, and
the smoke and darkness of the cabin such, that both
Mary and prudence urged a retreat. The children from
the thickly clustered cabins crowded forth, and one

CHAP. xvii.J CO. OF CORK.

bawled out, " A penny for a crass, ma'am." This
means, translated, a ribbon crossed upon the arm, to
be worn on St. Patrick's day, which was near at hand.
Never, never, had pictures like these met my eyes. I
was nearly struck mute. Human nature had never
before shown me what she could do when allowed to
have her own way. Yet these people can say the
Lord's prayer, go to chapel, wear a decent cap and
cloak, and are not so poor but that all have cattle, and
some money in reserve. The kind Lord Bantry, it is
said, gives every rational indulgence, and seldom sends
any empty away in distress ; but he never enters their
cabins to rebuke their filth, or offer them premiums for
any improvements they might make, as some have done
with good success.

The " Eagle's Nest" was the last wonder, deriving
its name from an eagle having made its nest in a fissure
of the rock towards the top of the mountain. And you
are told that a man named Sullivan supported a family
of six, as he testified, by going to the nest daily, and
taking the flesh of lambs, hares, and deer, which were
left for the young ones. This tremendous mountain
has a hideous, grand, and awful appearance, looking
down upon these wretched abodes that are smoking be-
neath.

But the getting home was the next question. De-
termining to cross the river when anything like proba-
bility appeared, I saw something tolerable, though my
watchful guide said we should u be destroyed" getting
through the bog and rushes on the other side. So
engrossed were my thoughts on what I had seen at the
Eagle's Nest, that I heeded neither the admonitions of
the careful child nor the peril that lay in my path. I
stepped upon the rocks, not once looking or thinking
what might impede me on the other side, telling the
girl to go on before me. She insisted, " Ye'd be lost,
ye cannot get up the bank," but after much hesitation
she reluctantly obeyed. I soon found myself in a peri-
lous situation ; the rocks slippery and far asunder, the
water deep and turbid, and my Indian rubber shoes were

294 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvn.

the most unpromising part of my security, as I could
neither take them off, nor maintain my position, but
with a great effort. I saw my folly and commended the
wisdom of the child, whom I directed to take a horizon-
tal direction up the bank, and with a kind of vacant
anxiety bordering on petrifaction, I watched till her
well-guided feet stood on the steep bank over my head.
What could I do ? To retrace my steps or stay where
I was, looked alike impossible, and to try to ascend the
bank would be almost madness. There was no alter-
native but onward. I clasped a bunch of hanging twigs,
they loosened the earth, and I felt myself sliding. The
presence of mind of the guardian angel Mary saved me ;
she caught the twigs, and with an almost supernatural
grasp she said, " Take hold of the top, lady, and I will
hold fast at the bottom so that you can't pull them up."
It was done, I was on the bank, and not till I looked
down the precipitous steep did I realize the presump-
tuous step I had taken. But my stupidity was God's
instrument to save me ; my mind was so absorbed on
what I had seen, that it was deadened to everything
beside, and fear or concern was not awakened. The
watchful child, as though my life had been intrusted to
her care, guided my way with the discretion of an ex-
perienced general.

We made a safe journey home. The strange things I
had seen, and the difficulties I had surmounted, were
sufficient for meditation ; but above all how to approach
Lord Bantry, and entreat him to do as others had done,
visit the cabins and work some change for the better —
was a weighty incubus which I could not shake off. As
I passed his cottage, a message was sent out inviting
me in ; but the lateness of the hour, and the plight of
my feet, together with the state of my mind, urged me
on, lest as a whole he might mistake iny drabbled dress,
twisted awry bonnet, and absence of mind, for " a loss
of the sinse," and I hurried home.

The next morning, a little more restored, I called
at his door, but the butler informed me he could see no
one, as he had a bleeding at the nose ; so he escaped

CHAP. xvu.J CO. OF CORK.

what he ought to have heard years before. I took an-
other day's ramble up to the head of the glen, a distance
of nearly three miles, and never was a glen to me like
this. From the top of a rock sometimes a shout burst
upon my ear, then some wild mountain girl would cross
my path, then a peasant or two, with braided straw sad-
dles and baskets across the woe-begone donkey, with a
salute of " God save ye kindly, lady" — then some way-
worn old woman, with a rope about her forehead, sup-
porting a ponderous sack of potatoes or turf upon her
back, would greet me. Meeting a path leading from the
main road, I followed it, and seeing a broken cart, sup-
posed that human beings must be among these rocks,
and upon my left I saw an aperture into what I thought
might be a cave or mountain den, and approaching,
found a pig nestled in some straw, and a voice from
within called out, " May-be ye'd like to come in and
take a hait by the fire.''

Had this invitation proceeded from a sepulchre, it
could not have been much more surprising, and not half
so unnatural for the abode of the dead as the living.
I stooped down and walked over the obstinate pig —
stumbled in, and here saw patient misery in somewhat
a new habiliment.

Against a huge rock — for there was no chimney —
there burned a few little twigs of wood. Three sisters —
the eldest seventeen, the second twelve, and the third
two, all nestled in straw, for there were not stools
enough for each ; and neither bed nor table encumbered
the room.

" Where do you sleep r" I asked.

" Poor folks must do as they can, ma'am — we lie
here," pointing to a pile of staw on the left. The little
child now asked for a potatoe. u I have none for you."
Not a particle of food did this destitute abode contain ;
and giving the child a couple of hard biscuits, she gnawed
them greedily — for the first time probably having had
a piece of bread in her life.

" How do you live r"

" As we can, ma'am." I then spoke of Jesus Christ.

CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. XVH.

" I don't understand ye," said she. u Do you not know
whom I mean by Jesus Christ ?'' I asked.

She could not comprehend me, and the second sister
said, " We don't go to church or chapel, ma'am." I in-
quired how long they had lived there. " One year,
ma'am." They had no father, and the mother had
gone from home, begging, I supposed. I knew not what
to say to them, nor what to do for them ; they were
perishing for " lack of knowledge," and the beasts of
the desert had more comfortable dwellings than they.*

This day finished my tour in the glen, and it had been
the most peculiar of any I had had in Ireland. I had
learned to a demonstration, that man left to instinct
alone, will not make himself as comfortable as the beasts
of the field, or birds of the air — they will construct their
habitations and nests when wanted, with perfect system
and even with mechanical taste — while man, with no
stimulus to activity but barely the food that sustains
him, will lie^down in stupid content, in the most filthy,
disorderly habitation, and even make a merit of doing
so. Here were literally exemplified the words of Job,
when he said of the poor — u They embraced the rock
for a shelter.'' " For want and famine they were deso-
late." " To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys,
in caves of the earth, and in the rocks — among the
bushes they brayed, under the nettles they were gathered
together."

Often have I seen the poor famished women gathering
nettles to boil, because they had no other food. And
here 1 would add, if any one thinks that man has any-
thing to boast since the Fall, let him explore the moun-
tains, the glens, the caves, and even the towns of Ire-
land : and, lest he should find a loop-hole for his pride,
let him go to. the places where the Bible is known, and
if the grace of God have not changed the heart, he will
find the same degradation in morals as in those places
where it has not been read.

* This is not mentioned as a specimen of the ignorance of the
peasantry as a whole, for in no place did they appear dark on the
subject of Christ's death and sufferings.

CHAP, xvii.] CO. OP CORK. 297

Saturday morning, March 7th. — Had made all ready
for leaving the glen. My obligations to the family
where I stopped, were of no ordinary kind.

" I was a stranger and they took me in.'' I had
enjoyed religious intercourse by conversation, by read-
ing the Scriptures, and by prayer, in a more familiar
way than in any family I had visited ; and though this
glen, in point of filth and whiskey-drinking, stands
pre-eminent, yet they suffered the plainest rebuke
without a retort. They received tracts, and thanked
me after reading them, for giving them such kind ad-
vice ; and the priest, who lived some miles from the
glen, sent a message by his clerk, thanking me for the
advice I had given, and the tracts I had distributed.
And though I would not intersperse my journal with
preaching a long sermon in every chapter, yet here it
would be timely to say, that a right spirit and a right
manner have much to do in the success of introducing
any principles clashing with long cherished ones of our
opponents.

Should a sanctimonious monk, full of zeal for his
church, with crucifix and rosary in his hand, come
into our houses and tell us we are all going to perdition,
because we did not say his prayers, and embrace his
faith, and insist that we should assemble our house-
hold to hear the truth from his lips, should we do it ?
Should he rail on our clergy, and denounce our Sab-
bath schools, think you he would get a patient hear-
ing ?

Let us reverse this picture — let us allow our brethren
of the human family the same prepossessions, however
absurd they may be, till, by a course of Christian chari-
ty, we show them that the religion we profess is indeed
what we call it, a religion of love, and calculated to do
the most permanent good.

Should any one visit Glengariff — if it be Glenga-
riff still — -and from cabin to cabin commence an attack
upon popery, and priests, images, and the " blessed
Virgin," he might be grateful if he escaped unhurt ;
but let him go with a heart warm with a Saviour's love

298 CO. OF CORK. [CHAP. xvn.

— let him tell them of this love — let him tell them if
they do not repent, they will all likewise perish — let
him rebuke them sharply for all their profanity, Sab-
bath-breaking, drunkenness, &c. — let him pointedly tell
them that all this wickedness comes from hatred to God,
from wicked hearts of unbelief, and they will respond —
" An' you're the one that knows it" — they will gather
around him, they will ask him to read, they will in-
quire for his books, and sometimes they have asked
such to pray for them. One said to another, " Aint
she a Protestant r" u I don't care what she is," was
the spirited reply ; u nothing but love to God could
bring her across the ocean to see such a poor people as
we, and stop in our cabins to discoorse us, and give us
good books. She's been well rair'd, the cratur, and
that she has."

But we must not stop in this glen. The morning had
opened, the sun looked out upon a clear sky, and the
boy who was to accompany me had eaten his potatoes,
and was ready at an early hour. " You shall give us
nothing but your prayers, and you shall have ours ; and
if ye wouldn't think it too much to leave the little book
to Mary, she loves it so well, I will cover it with linen,
and she shall read it twice a day, we should be more
than paid."

This little Mary had entwined herself around my
heart by so many acts of kindness, as well as her good
sense and integrity, that when she took the little book,
and said, " I thank you kindly," I felt like snatching
her from the glen, and fixing her in a soil where she
should no longer " blush unseen."

Master and Mistress, Mary, and the little affection-
ate dog Vixen, stood out upon the clean pathway and
lawn before the cottage — a moment's pause — " and we'll
never forget ye," was the last sound that fell upon my
ear ; for, as I proffered my hand, and saw the tear glis-
tening in the kind eye of little Mary, I hastened away
without speaking.

I looked back, the sun was shining upon this little
group ; the holly, the arbutus, and the laurel — my

CHAP, xvn.] CO. OF CORK. 299

favorite shrubs of the glen — were quivering in its rays
at their side. I was going forth upon wild, heathy
mountains, and should see the little company no more,
" till the heavens be rolled together as a scroll." They
had been more than kind, and how had I repaid them ?
Had I done what I oould to scatter light in their path ?
Are they no worse for iny coming among them ? was
my heart-felt inquiry. Have the evening prayers which
they nightly asked me to put up in their family, and
the reading of the sweet words of eternal life, which for
the last ten days had been heard in their dwelling —
had these entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth,
and would they return with a blessing upon their
heads ?

The little Vixen watched the return of the family
into the cottage, and leaped after me, keeping the oppo-
site side of the stream till he had entered the thickest
of the wood, and then attempted crossing it, nor could
we urge him back ; and not till the little Mary appeared
and turned him away would he leave us, and we soon
lost sight of them for ever.

Our path lay over brambles amid rivulets and walls,
up one of the tallest mountains in the glen, where many
a traveller has ascended to take one of the most pictu-
resque views in all Glengariff.

It was a long and difficult ascent, but courage kept
me steady, and when compelled to sit down upon a
crag or hillock, the smoke of a cabin by the side of
some rock or hill, the shouting of children, the towering
mountains stretched beyond the glen, and sleeping
lakes that lay at our feet, made such a picture that I
forgot my weariness, and the long Irish miles I had
yet to walk. I was told that there are in this glen
and upon the mountains, three hundred and sixty-five
lakes. This I am not prepared to prove or dispute,
yet, judging from what I met, I think it may not be
improbable. The hill was ascended, we reached the
newly walled road made upon the top of a narrow
ridge of mountain, with a glen on each hand at our
feet, a precipitous steep of many yards leading to these

300 CO. OP KERRY. [CHAP. XVH.

ravines, which in most places made a dizzy and fearful
sight to the traveller. At length the tunnel, hewn
through a rock like the arch of a bridge, met our eyes.
Here was the wonder of wonders. For the distance of
eighty perches a hole is cut sufficiently wide and high
for coaches to pass, and the only light admitted is from
the entrance at each end, and one little aperture in the
top. The water was percolating through the rock, and
darkness made it a prison not the most inviting for a
long tarry. Giving full scope to my voice in singing,
the echo was tremendous. The grandeur that hurst
upon the view when we emerged, was, if possible, great-
er than when we entered it, nor did it cease till we had
walked two miles. We then came in sight of a tolera-
ble looking house at a distance, and found it belonged
to the priest of the glen. I was fatigued, and willing
to avail myself of the acquaintance I had with him
through his clerk, whom he requested to thank me for
my labors in the glen, we went in. The priest had
gone, but the kind housekeeper, so far as words could
speak kindness, manifested the most ardent desire to
make me comfortable, but could give me no refresh-
ment, as they lived far from any town, and their bread
was all brought from Bantry. " But ye'll meet him on the
way, and ye'll know him by the sign of the white horse
which he rides." The boy, like my old man, began to
talk of the lateness of the hour, and we hurried away.
Within three miles of Kenmare we saw the sign of the
" white horse," and without preface or apology, I in-
troduced myself. He thanked me kindly for lecturing
his people at the glen, and said he had got discouraged.
Five years before, the good Father Mathew had made
them all temperate, but that publican's house had upset
the whole work. I begged him to visit their cabins,
and lecture them on their filth. " I have done so, but
they heeded nothing I could say." He lived seven
miles from them, had another parish in charge, and he
knew not how to remedy these evils ; " but to-morrow
1 have been thinking of making a trial from the altar,

CHAP, xvii.j CO. OF KERRY. 301

and I would take the liberty of using your name." Poor
man ! if indeed he felt the necessity of using me as a
scare-crow, certainly I should not object, but I doubted
the efficacy of the remedy.

While talking with the priest, who directed me to
the best lodgings in town in his name, a ragged young
man, with a cart and high railing about it, filled with
turf baskets, drawn by a miserable looking pony, pass-
ed us. This was the time for an onset. My boy had
been complaining much that the " night would be
heavy on him," and he contrived to make a happy dis-
posal of me for his own benefit. This was done by tak-
ing down the railings and fixing the baskets in a kind of
circle, so that by sitting on one that was inverted, with
my feet in the space, I could be snugly poised. When
I reached the cart the driver said, u Ye had a wairy
walk, and may be ye'd be kind enough to sit on my
humble cart, and ride to town ; we've fixed a sait here,
will ye get up ?"

This was too plain to be misunderstood, and too
polite to be rejected: the boy responded, "and may
be he'd be willin' to carry the luggage too." " That
indeed," said the accommodating man. " Then ye'll
not want me, and I can go back." This was done, and
well done on their part, and they assisted in adjusting
me and my luggage. The boy was paid and turned
about, and I, with a new companion, and in somewhat
a new mode of travelling, was under favorable auspices
for reaching the town. My young driver talked fluently
of America, and said he should go there but for the lit-
tle gal he had married, who would be lonesome without
him.

" The little gal you have married ! you are not yet
twenty !"

" That I aint, and the gal is but thirteen or four-
teen."

" Nonsense, nonsense. What can you do with a
wife ?"

" And may be I don't know ; why, work, and take
care of her."

302 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xvm.

" And how much do you have a day ?"

" Sometimes the sixpence, and when I gits a job with
the pony, it's a shilling or fifteen pence."

" And with this you expect to support a wife ?"

" With the turn that she can git now and then from
a lady."

He was a sharp-nosed stinted boy, not in appearance
more than sixteen, yet he had as high hopes of aggran-
dizement as though a candidate for parliament. Envia-
ble content ! happy misery !

CHAPTER XVIII.

Accident at Kenmare— Arrival at Killarney— Dread of Heretical Books— Turk
Waterfall— Funeral Wail— America's good fame— Lions of the Lake—" Sweet
Innisfallen"— White-robed Procession— A Third Funeral— Dry Bones— Bat-
tle of the Ghosts—'1 Pair of Slippers"— Test of Orthodoxy— Staring I Star-
ing !— Another Hospitable Gate-house — Lord Kenmare's Park — Calm Sabbath
Morn— The Little Petitioner for the " Word of God"— A Door of Access.

IT was certainly an object of no small interest at Ken-
mare, that such a " dacent body" was not in a coach,
and the fat contented old lady, to whom the priest di-
rected me, knocked the ashes from her pipe, saying,
" and it's you that's the lady." The village assembled
in the evening and listened to reading till a late hour,
ever finding it a better way before distributing tracts to
read something interesting, which always awakened a
curiosity to become better acquainted with them. Sab-
bath morning, going out to an ivy-covered decayed cas-
tle near by, and attempting to climb a wall, my cape
blew over my face, my foot slipped, and I fell upon the
pavement, and so great was the jar, that for a moment
I supposed my fate was sealed, and that in Ireland,
and in that unpromising looking town, I must endure
probably months of suffering with a disease of the
spine, as I had done in New York. A company were

CHAP. xvin.J CO. OF KERRY. 303

passing to mass, and two old men helped me a little up-
right, and placed me against the wall, leaving me to
my meditations, which were not the most flattering. I
looked about upon the desolate town, and recoiled at
the thought of being left in it, and made an effort to
arise ; with considerable suffering I reached my lodging,
and in a little time quite regained my former position.
Heard a dull sermon with dull ears.

This town has nothing interesting but a suspension
bridge, with two richly ornamented pillars, and a hand-
some pier. The next morning, though urged to stay,
I bade adieu, started for the fairy land of Killarney, and
rode through a wild tract of twenty miles, till the u Up-
per Lakes" of the far-famed Killarney met my sight.
Nothing here appeared peculiarly striking; the day was
chill, the company dull, and I was making up my mind,
that if I had visited this spot for novelty or beauty, I
might better have stayed in Glengariff. I stepped in to
inquire for lodgings, and was quite happy when safely
out upon the street ; and inquiring for Mrs. Casey,
to whom I had been recommended at Cork, I
found a comfortable home during my stay in that
place.

Ross Island was the first in the morning to which I
resorted ; and, reaching the gate of a beautiful thatched
cottage, saw the proprietor in the garden, who invited
me through the gate, and accompanied me about the
several walks. Though in the month of March, it was
blooming with greens and flowers. The different open-
ings upon the lakes were made with a most happy skill,
and the parts which were left wild were selected with
judgment. The gardeners of Ireland display much
taste in adjusting their rough stones, their rustic seats
and summer-houses ; and in fitting up a pleasure-ground,
they seem to possess a correct judgment in knowing
what to cultivate, and what to leave wild. This spot
possesses beauties which to an admirer of nature cannot
fail to please.

At ten I returned, the hour that the laborers break-
fast ; and the family finished at eleven. So late are the

304 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xvm.

Irish about rising in the morning, that the best part of
the day is often lost. I sauntered through the town,
and here Glengariff scenes were acted over by a mob of
boys, women, and girls, with cloaks over head, some in
pursuit, and others running before, and then stopping
to have a full gaze. So much had I heard of the beau-
ties of Killarney, that I was quite disappointed in the
refinement of the people. A boy accompanied me to
the Victoria Hotel, situated on the bank of the lower
lake, a mile from town. In summer this is well filled
with company from various parts of the world to visit
these enchanting lakes. I was quite annoyed by a boy
asking for books. I gave him a copy of the Douay
gospels, and he went away pleased ; in an hour he was
running after me, crying, " This is a Protestant book,
and I won't have it." Telling him what it was, and,
asking why he was so afraid of it, he answered, u I would
rather have my own religion, and should not like to
take a Protestant book ;" he took it a second time, and
at evening came running, and rudely thrust it into my
hand, saying, " I know this is a Protestant book, and
I will not have it." The boy seemed grieved, that, as
he supposed, I had deceived him. He had carried the
book to his mother, and she had told him it was one of
the Protestant tracts that had been distributed there to
injure Romanism. A little girl of twelve stood listen-
ing, and said, " Madam, will you let me have the book ?
You shouldn't be giving your books to every scrawl in
the street." Fearing, notwithstanding her judicious
caution, she might be a " scrawl," I declined, telling
her to go home and think of it, and if she continued to
want one, to call at my lodgings Sabbath evening at six
o'clock, and she should have on.e. " 'Tis the Word
of God I want, ma'am."

March 13th. — I took a walk of four miles to the cele-
brated Turk mountain to see the cascade, and when I
had reached the foot of it, I sat down upon a seat to
meditate undisturbed on this beautiful sight. Four
white sheets of water have for ages been coursing down
a rock of eighty feet in height, wearing channels of

CHAP, xviii.] CO. OF KERRY. 305

considerable depth, and on their way have received
some small rivulets issuing from the sides of the moun-
tain pouring together into one basin at the bottom.
The mountains on either hand are lofty, wild, and pre-
cipitous. I attempted to make my way over the slip-
pery stones to reach the basin, but found it too hazar-
dous, being out of the hearing of any human being, and
should I tumble into the stream, or break a bone, my
fate would be irrecoverable.

An hour was gone, and admiration, if possible, was
increasing ; but looking to my left, I saw a path lead-
ing up the mountain, and followed it. In a few yards
it opened a small view of the lakes, and as you ascend
the view widens and widens, till you see spread out be-
fore you lawns, the middle and lower lakes, with their
beautiful islands, and the grand Kerry mountains
stretching out beyond. Seats at proper distances are
arranged, where the traveller may rest, and feast his eyes
on the beauties beneath his feet. But when the top is
reached, the awful precipice overhanging the cascade
would endanger the life of any one to overlook, were
there not a railing erected for the safety of the visitor.
Here I sat, and thanked God that he had given me eyes
to see, and a mind to enjoy, a scene like this. More
than three thousand miles from my native country, on
the top of this awfully wild mountain, where many a
stranger's foot had trod, I was enjoying a good reward
for all my labor. The sun was shining upon the unruf-
fled lakes, the birds were hopping from bough to bough,
mingling their songs with the untiring cascade, the par-
tridge fluttered in the brake at a distance, but I knew no
venomous serpent was there. I was unwilling to leave
the spot, and had not the promise of returning to wit-
ness a funeral at two o'clock urged me away, my stay
might have been protracted till sunset. I lingered
and looked, and like Eve when leaving paradise,
said —

" And must I leave thee !"

I returned not till I had explored the end of the

306 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xvm.

woodman's path, over a bridge that crossed the chasm
beyond, and then took a last look of this coy maiden,
standing once more at her feet. Though she cannot
boast the awful grandeur of the bold Niagara of my na-
tive country, yet she has beauties which can never cease
to please. She has an unassuming modesty which com-
pels you to admire, because she seems not to covet your
admiration. She is so concealed that the eye never
meets her till close upon the white folds of her drapery,
and when, but a few paces from her feet, I turned to
take another look, I could not see even "the hem of her
garment."

On returning to the gate, it was locked ; the woman
who had kept it had given me the key ; I had carelessly
left it in the door, without locking it, and she had
fastened the gate and taken the key. I could neither
make myself heard, nor climb the wall ; a sad dilemma !
A return to the cascade seemed to be the only alterna-
tive ; but following the wall, an end was happily found,
and the road soon gained. Stopping at a neat little
lodge, bread and honey were brought to me in such a
simple patriarchal manner, that the days of Rebecca
and Ruth were before me.

The loud " wail" for the dead soon sounded from
the mountain. a She's a proper woman," said one,
" and her six children are all very sorry for her, the
cratur." I went on to the gate till the multitudinous
procession arrived, bearing the coffin on a couple of
sheets, twisted so that four men could take hold one at
each end, and carry it along. Women were not only
howling, but tears were fast streaming from many an
eye. When they reached the abbey, the grave was not
dug, and here was a new and louder wail struck up.
While the grave was digging, eight women knelt down
by the coffin, and putting their hands upon it, and beat-
ing with force, set up a most terrific lamentation. The
pounding upon the coffin, the howling, and the shovel-
ling of earth from the grave, made together sounds and
sights strange, if not unseemly. The body was to be
deposited where a brother and a sister had been buried,

CHAP. XVIIL] CO. OF KERRY. 307

and when they reached the first coffin, took it out, and
found the second rotten, they took up the mouldered
pieces and flung them away. The bones of the legs
and arms, with the skull, were put together, and laid
by the side of the coffins; the new coffin was put
down, and the old one, which was the last of the two
former, was placed upon it.

When all was finished, they knelt down to offer up a
prayer for the dead, which was done in silence, and they
walked away with much decency.

Mucrus Abbey is of itself enough for a book ; but as
so much has been said of it to the purpose, and as mi-
nute description of castles or abbeys is not the object
of this journal, the reader will find elsewhere what could
not have room in a work like this.

On my way to the cascade, I stopped at the gate of
the lodge on the borders of the lake, and the keeper
said I could not be allowed to enter on any conditions.
" I am a stranger from New York," said I. " Come in,
come in," was the response. She conducted me through,
and pointed me to the best views upon the lake ; and
seeing a pier built out to an island, I followed, and
found a delightfully fitted-up spot with caverns, sitting
rooms, rustic seats, and walks. There was once an old
castle built upon this rock, and caves were made by
the wearing of the water in the rock on which the
castle stood. Going to the dwelling upon the shore,
men-servants and maid-servants came out to salute
me, yet none asked me in, though welcome was given
me to visit all the domain without any restriction.
But America is all the theme by the laboring class of
Ireland ; glad was I, that, notwithstanding her abomi-
nable slavery, yet here is a little green spot, where I
could rest and look my enemies in the face undaunted.
The free states of my own country have ever been an
asylum to the foreigner, and the reward of his labor
has been given him. The ragged laborer has soon
exchanged his tatters for decent apparel, the bare feet
of the cabin girl have been covered, and the basket
has been taken from the back of the peasant woman.

308 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP.XVIII.

I would acknowledge with gratitude that, throughout
the length and breadth of Ireland, the poor have re-
quired no letter of introduction, but the name of Ame-
rica. It has opened the gate of many a porter's lodge;
it has shown me into many a prohibited pleasure
ground, and given me many a potatoe or cup of milk in
the cabin, when the aristocrat would have looked with
suspicion on the letter of introduction from the best
authority.

One of the servants was fitting for a voyage to Bos-
ton, and asked what she should most need to recom-
mend her. I answered, cleanliness; that want of this
could not be supplied by any qualification, however
good, in New England.

Thursday. — Two boatmen, for five shillings, took
me upon the lakes, and showed the various curiosities.
We saw Goat Island, where were two cottages, one
of great beauty, but found no inmates — the island
called O'Donohoe's Library, having stones so arranged
about the edge that they have the appearance of books
lying slantingly upon each other — a circular pond,
now called Father Mathew's Coffee Basin, once the
resort of punch-drinkers, and called the u Devil's
Punch Bowl" — and another pond, which was the favorite
resort of Sir Walter Scott, and called by him the
"Meeting of the Waters." This pond is surrounded
by beautiful shrubbery, into which the lake empties
itself by four different ways, a nook peculiarly fitted
for the play of an imagination like his. The Eagle's
Nest came next, a lofty mountain much like the one
in Glengariff, but no frightful inhabitants there.
Here the proud eagle uncontrolled soars fearless of
the marksman's arrow, as lord of both sky and moun-
tain ; here too, are cradled the young eaglets till
fitted for flight ; and the boatmen showed me a ca-
vity in the rock where a nest has yearly been
made ; the nest was once robbed, and two of the young
eagles are now kept for pets in Killarney. An adven-
turous man, with a pistol and hook in his hands, was
fastened by a rope round his body and legs, the rope

CHAP, xvm.] CO. OF KERRY. 309

was carried to the top of the rock and there made se-
cure ; when he had reached the nest, he grappled the
hook, secured the young, fired his pistol, and was let
down

We sailed back from the foot of the mountain, and
viewed the shores from the middle lake. Here the
water has worn the rocks till it has formed beautiful cav-
erns, called wine cellars. In some places pillars are left,
which look as if hewn by a chisel.

The famous Innisfallen was not the least of the beau-
ties of these lakes, sung by poets, and admired by all — •
a green spot where stands a castle, or rather the remains
of one, but no cottage. The island was beautifully
green, and sheep were feeding upon it. The Bed of
Honor, about which so many ludicrous stories are told,
is in quite a perilous place for a retreat of safety ; a
point of the rock juts into the lake, in the side of which
is a little shelf, where it is said two runaway lovers hid
from the wrath of a father and affianced husband who
followed. The fugitives went out to meet them, and
the lover left the matter to the honor of the betrothed
one, who, notwithstanding the partiality the maiden
evinced for another, bore her away, and made her his
unwilling bride.

The story answers well for the purses of the guides,
who are sure to add every variety that can give zest to
the tale.

But Innisfallen has beauties which can scarcely be ex-
aggerated, and if art has any part in rendering landscape
lovely, a cottage here would be at least a pleasant varie-
ty. The lady who owns it has proceeded so far towards
a commencement as to send a huge pile of lime to the
spot, and a few stones, but the selfish thought that she
had no children to enjoy it, and that she would not build
it for the benefit of strangers, prevailed, and the rub-
bish remains as a memento of the lady's love for pos-
terity.

On our return we had a view of the ivy-covered
castle on Ross Island. The side fronting the lake was
completely overrun with ivy, except a few little white

310 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xvm.

spots, which at a distance had the appearance of
patches put on. The place, the plan, and finish of this
castle, are a worthy comment on the taste of the an-
cients, and the former prosperity of Ireland. The boat-
men obeyed to the letter the command given when set-
ting out, not to give one fairy tale. Consequently my
eyes were not diverted, nor my imagination stretched,
to make out beauties and wonders which were not ex-
actly before me. The realities of Killarney-lakes are
enough without any varnishing. As a whole, a fairy
land in reality, I had read much of it ; but when I saw
it, I determined to mock no reader with a description,
as I had been, but to invite all who may choose to have
a spare shilling, to give it to a common-sense boatman
on the lakes of Killarney.

Friday early, I heard the tolling of a bell, and was
told it was the convent bell, tolling the funeral of a
nun, the matron of the institution. I passed by the
crowded gate, and though the keeper was preventing
the entrance of the crowd, finding that I was an Ame-
rican stranger, the porter said, u Welcome, welcome
in," and opened the gate. This was a favorable mo-
ment ; the crowd, without preface or apology, rushed
in, and pressed me by force into the convent yard.
The procession was conducted by priests in white
robes, followed by twelve girls in white ; then the
nuns in white robes, with black veils, and all bearing
lighted candles ; the priests reading prayers in Latin,
intelligible to all but the listeners. They entered the high
walled enclosure where the nuns were interred, and chant-
ed a plaintive funeral song, while the corpse was h|ing
buried.

A gentleman approached, asking, " Have you seen
the interment ?" adding, u had I seen you before, you
should have been admitted, as you are a stranger."

I next walked through the gate leading to Lord
Kenmare's domain, a happy appendage to the lakes,
ornamented with walks and seats, and two rustic
thatched cottages, made of small round sticks of wood
with the bark on, and put together like patch-work, in

CHAP. xviu. j CO. OF KERRY. 311

diamonds, wheels, and stars ; the floors are laid in
small pebbles, in wheels, and the whole together is in
perfect taste. The sun was shining upon the sloping
green lawn, and the lakes below were sparkling in its
light. I was just seated in one of the cottages, ga-
thering around me the dancing fairies of the imagina-
tion, when a wail for the dead fell on my ear. Surely
this morning thus far was devoted to the ghosts of the
departed. 1 hastened from the enchanted seat, and
found that the procession was moving to the burying-
place upon the hill, the oldest in all Killarney. The
undying propensity of all ages to look, and if possible
to accompany a funeral procession, led me on, and I
waded through, and climbed over walls, to follow the
dead, but did not succeed in time, the death-cry having
ceased before I could reach them.

A youth tending cattle upon the hill showed me into
the burying-ground and old- church, said to be 1,150
years old. An old tower, and the Bishop's chair, be-
ing no more than the remains of an old tower, in shape
in its ruins like a large chair, stand at a distance. But
the sight of sights is the pile of dry bones in one cor-
ner of the church-yard, and scattered all through it, as
well as around it. Skulls with open jaws and teeth,
and all the bones of the body, are here in thick profu-
sion under the open sky. It is said that the burying-
ground is as old as the church, and the peasantry of Ire-
land retain a strong propensity to bury their dead with
their ancestors, consequently this is the spot where
Killarney dead must lie, though the bones of kings
and nobles are rooted out, and scattered to bleach in the
winds and sun of heaven, to make room for them.
While standing with the mountain herder, a man whose
cabin "joined hard" to the burying-ground, accosted
us. I asked if it was not unpleasant to live near so
many dead bodies and dried bones. u Not at all ; it's
the livin', ma'am, that do the hurt," adding a story,
which requires both Irish cleverness and Irish brogue to
be well understood.

A young mountain lad had been to a fair, and took

312 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xvm.

too much whiskey ; on his return up the mountain, his
pathway lay across this burying-ground. As he passed
a tomb-stone, a couple of goats were pushing with their
horns, and u rattling them like sticks." The terrified
fellow ran home as fast as his staggering would enable
him, and fell shaking upon the floor, and it was not for
hours that he could understandingly tell the astonished
family what had caused the fright. At last he informed
them, " that all the ghosts that had been buried for the
last forty years had come out of their graves, and were
killing each other, for he saw them fightin' and heard
the bones rattle, and they were all in their windin'
sheets about the ground." a For a twelvemonth,"
said the narrator, " Paddy could hear nothing else when
he went to the town, but the * rattlin' of dead bones
killin' each other.'"

This burial place, like most others in Ireland, is si-
tuated in a pleasant spot, and it would seem that the
ancients had a regard for good air, extensive view, and
a noble church for the comfort of their dead. The coun-
try here slopes down to the lakes. The Kerry moun-
tains rise in the most varied shapes, and topped with
snow, glistening in the sun ; while many a green field
with cattle and sheep spreads out at their feet, making
together so picturesque a view, that I sat down upon a
wall, with my cabin man and mountain lad at my feet,
for two hours ; and they in turn did what they could to
amuse and instruct me.

On my way down the mountain, seeing a most mi-
serable cabin, I ventured through the door, and found it
was the home of the mountain boy I had left. He
certainly made a happy change when he left the dirty,
smoky hovel, where men, women, pigs, and cattle,
geese and turkeys, all had one common lodgment, if
not one common bed. The old man, the boy's father,
said, " he had lived there sixty years, was now in a
decline and ould, and hoped, through attention to the
duties of the church, to get to heaven at last." He
was pointed to the " Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world ;" but he could not understand

CHAP, xvin.] CO. OF KERRY. 313

how he could be saved out of his church, nor how he
could be lost if he obeyed its mandates. Now for civi-
lity and hospitality. The old man said, " an' yer feet
are destroyed by the mud, and wouldn't ye have a
pair of slippers, and rest yer feet, and stop and take
a fresh egg ?" Have a pair of slippers ! In a hovel
like this ! All the curiosities of the church-yard now
vanished. The egg I did not dispute, for a goose was
quietly seated on a nest in the corner, and a hen had
just left her's under the cupboard, and was cackling
about the room. The mother put a basket of potatoes
into a tub, and washed them with her feet, and sus-
pended them over the fire to boil for supper. Every-
thing was in train for a repast, but making my exit as
civilly as I could, after heartily thanking them (for
their hospitality could not be disputed), my lodgings
were reached, with an escort which had increased from
cabin to cabin, and from passengers on the way ; some
asking for books, some inquiring about America, and
one among the better learned asked, " What I thought
of the ' Blessed Virgin ?' " " This will cut the gar-
ment," retorted a woman. " As ye think of the mo-
ther, so ye'd love the Son, and if yer tracts say nothin'
of her, we would not read 'em." I found in this town
more suspicion that my .books were dangerous, than in
any other. The just reason was, that a well-meaning
person, with more zeal than knowledge, had scattered
through it tracts, treating entirely on controversial
points between Romanism and Protestantism ; which
so aroused the bishop, that he had issued an edict that
no book or tract should be received from a Protestant,
unless its contents were first ascertained to be of the
genuine kind. Happily for me, mine were unexcep-
tionable, and when they found that neither my books
nor myself were designed to proselyte them to a party,
but lead them to Christ, they rejoiced exceedingly, and
received the books with great cordiality during my whole
stay in the place.

Saturday. — Hesitated how to pass the day ; my
dread of going out upon the street was greater in Kil-
14

314 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP.XVIII.

larney than in any other town ; though it is a place
where strangers constantly resort, it would seem that I
was a more interesting spectacle than any whatever.
My coat was made of good cloth and in the newest
fashion, my bonnet was the same, but my muff was
black and large, and thinking that the coat might be a
little novel to the peasantry, and the muff a fright, I
resolved that morning to avoid all occasion of offence.
The post-office was the place of destination, and put-
ting on a cloak which the peasantry wear both in
winter and summer, and leaving the muff behind, I
went out quite early, hoping to escape unmolested.
Not so ; my fate was fixed. Men, boys, women, and
girls, were on the spot, who all regulated their move-
ments in unison with mine. If I hastened my pace,
they did the same ; if I walked slowly, they did so
too ; and if I stopped, this was still more favorable
for the gaping. It was market-day, and a fresh
recruit was on the field ; some dropped their sacks
and hurried on, lest I might be too quick for them ;
others, with baskets and buckets on their heads,
managed so adroitly as to draw up to the spot in good
time, near where they supposed I was going. Reaching
the post-office, I paused and seriously asked a country-
man, who was leisurely surveying me from head to foot,
u How do you like my looks ? Don't you think me a
queer looking woman ?"

u By dad, ye're a dacent lookin' body," said he.

I dropped in my letter, and with a hurried step walked
away, when a huckster woman bawled out, " She's a
beautiful wawlker, God bless her."

What could I do, what should I do, with this inde-
scribable annoyance of being followed through the town,
over hedges, and even into burying-grounds, to be gaped
at ? The misery was enhanced by knowing that this
proceeded from no ill motive whatever, for they
would have protected me at the risk of their own safety,
and I hated myself that my sensibilities were such,
that I could not be more patient under the unavoidable
ordeaL

CHAP, xviii.] CO. OF KERRY. 315

We will now, reader, escape the market-women and
visit Lord Kenmare's deer park. At the gate a more
than ordinary looking woman met me, and in a plea-
sant manner invited me into her cottage. It was
cleanly, and she was tidily dressed, and had no occa-
sion to say she had been " better rair'd." She was
religious, and when she learned my object to Ireland,
in admiration she exclaimed, " Blessed Jesus, make me
thankful, and bless and protect her ! The people in
Kerry, ma'am, are very dark ; some of them are mar-
ried, and can't say the Lord's prayer. I bless God
that he sent you to Ireland. And what can I do for
you ? I have nothing to give a stranger, a lady like
you. I am sitting desolate and alone in my cabin. My
husband is dead, my children are gone, and I keep this
little cottage at the gate for my bit of bread.''

I read a tract to .her called the " Worth of a Dollar,"
and presented it to her. She clasped it, raising her
hands and eyes, saying, " Is this a present for me ? I
was going to ask where one could be bought, and now
you have given it to me. I have a friend who loves
the world too much, and this is the book I'll give him
to read. I've often told him he'd lose his soul if he
didn't let go the world." She was not ignorant of the
Word of God, and repeated some Scripture, though
she had no Bible. I presented her with the Douay
gospels, and read some portions to her, when with em-
phasis she exclaimed, " It is good, but where is the
' Blessed Virgin ?' Didn't she bring forth the blessed
Saviour, and didn't she wrap him in swaddling clothes
in a manger, and didn't the breath of oxen warm his
blessed body?" The expression was new, simple, and
touching.

She showed me the best walk through the park to
find the glen behind it, and heaped renewed blessings
on my head, for leaving her the books. Walking
a little distance, some laboring men saw me, and in-
forming them I was an American, and asking the way
to the glen, one dropped his spade, and in spite of re-

316 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xvm.

monstrance, would show me to the gate, lest I should
"go astray." The law of kindness is most indelibly
written on these poor peasants' hearts. If they meet a
stranger, and need require, they will give to the utmost,
they will do to the utmost, and not let him know they
have made any sacrifice.

Glens had been my peculiarly pleasant walks in
Ireland, but here I was in a way to get too much. I
followed a clear stream for a mile or more, and saw no
outlet. Darkness was gathering, and my prospects
were not the brightest ; at length a bridge led me
across the stream, through the glen, to a deep ditch,
on the top of which was a fence made of poles. Down
the ascent of the ditch on the other side was a crazy
ladder made of sticks, and to reach this I must climb
and cross the fence. The risk looked dubious, and I
walked away, ascended the hill, but could find no out-
let ; returned, and resolved to make the effort, much
fearing the second part to the fall made a few days be-
fore. Throwing my muff and parasol before me, 1 made
the leap, and happily succeeded. A long walk was be-
fore me, and —

" Wide o'er the scene her tints grey evening flings,"

but one happy reflection was, that I should escape the
staring in town by the darkness. And so it proved.

Sabbath morning early, taking my Bible and a few
tracts, visited Ross Island. Entered a cottage in a
wild part of it, gave the son and daughter each a small
book, when the mother in kindness asked me to walk
in and see a child who was sick with the small-pox. I
assured her I had no desire to become acquainted with
the small-pox in this way. " The disease is in Killar-
ney entirely." Leaving the door, I seated myself on a
rustic seat by the side of the lake, and enjoyed a Sab-
bath hour, with the Word of God and the book of
nature before me, opened to as bright a page as the
volume could produce. For Killarney is not evanes-
cent in her friendship, pleasant and cordial to-day, as

CHAP, xvni.] CO. OF KERRY. 317

is often said of the nation, and to-morrow unkind
and forbidding. These lakes and this scenery never
can tire ; a spot where " Nature wears her sweetest
smile."

But I must leave this temple of God, this open air
adoration, and take my reader to a little church, to
hear a short discourse, from il Enter in at the strait
gate." The little company that attended was not the
best comment on the success of gospel truth, though
the worshippers appeared devout.

At six o'clock, taking as usual tracts and books, I
went to the gate-house of Lord Kenmare. Here was
a family of children, who had been well educated for
the peasantry, and giving a book to one, it was read
audibly, and received that hearty response that every
subject treating on benevolence ever does among the
poor of Ireland. Charity is the alpha and omega,
the sum total of all that makes the man or woman,
with these people. Without it your religion, whether
Roman or Protestant, is but as sounding brass or a
tinkling cymbal. And a distinguishing feature which
cannot be too much admired, is, that when they give,
they give unsparingly from their pittance, and when
they receive, they do it with as much thankfulness,
when the smallest trifle is offered, as when the dona-
tion is quite bountiful. While the child was reading
the story the potatoes were preparing, and milk and
eggs put on, and I was invited to u the egg and sup of
milk, ma'am, but you couldn't take the potatoe." I had
taken supper, but never declined a potatoe, and always
took it in my hand, which to them was as sure a test
of good-will and sincerity on my part, as are the grip
and well-known pass- word to the initiated brother
mason.

As I went out four little girls were at the gate,
where they had been waiting an hour to ask for books.
" It's the Word of God I want," said one, " which you
promised me last I^i'iday. I went to your place at
six, as you told me, and they sent me to the gate, and

318 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xvm.

I have been waiting an hour, ma'am. And have you got
the Word of God for me now? it's that I want."

" I am not certain but you will destroy it if I give
you one."

" Destroy the Word of God ! Who would dare do
that ?"

A woman now interfered, " And what's this you're
saying ? If you toucn one of her books, I'll tell the
bishop." The bishop's house was at our left, but a few
yards distant. " He has told us we must not touch a
Protestant book." " I don't care if y0u do tell the
bishop. If I can get the Word of God, I'll read it."
This was plain English, and then turning to me, " I
know, lady, you'll give it to me. You said you would."
" But," continued the woman, u they are the same
books that the Protestant man had, to put down the
church, and speak against our religion." Turning to
the woman, and telling her I had no books but what the
bishop would approve, and that they were Irish and
Douay Testaments, &c., she begged pardon, and walked
on, the little girl exulting said, u There, I knew the
lady was right."

When we reached the lodging-house, the Testaments
and books were presented ; but by no urging would the
girl be persuaded to take any books but the Scriptures,
though she was told they contained beautiful stories,
and were handsomely covered. u It's the Word of God
I want, and nothing else," was the only answer, though
the three others were better pleased with a colored tract
than with any other book.

The next day was devoted by the citizens of Kil-
larney to St. Patrick. At twelve the temperance
band awakened me, by playing very sweetly the air of
St. Patrick's Day, reminding me of New York, when
the Irish emigrants there celebrate the day, rekindle
old associations of their beloved Emerald Isle, sing the
songs of their native land, and live over again the bye-
gone days of the country so dear to them. Early the
chapel bells called to mass, and from every mountain

CHAP, xix.] CO. OF KERRY. 319

and glen the people poured in, with the green sham-
rock in their hats, the children with some kind of
ribbon upon the left arm, which they called the
" crass." Sabbath was called Palm Sunday, when a
sprig of palm was carried to the chapel to be blessed, and
worn home in the hat ; this was changed by some on
Monday for the shamrock. The multitude huddled to
mass three times a day, and passed the afternoon and
evening looking upon each other, but not in quar-
relling or drinking. To avoid the staring without,
and the thronged house within, I again visited the
park, and under a shady oak should have enjoyed
a sweet sleep, with my muff for a pillow, had not the
gate-woman found and invited me in. Another treat
of reading she enjoyed, but declined taking any books,
lest the bishop should punish her. Reading to these
people what they can understand, and what they should
practise, is the best mode of access, and the surest way
to do good. Having few or no books of their own,
and many not being able to read at all, a story of
practical piety, a clear and pungent explanation of the
most essential doctrines connected with the life and
atonement of Christ, are listened to with the deepest
interest. And not unfrequently will the sower find, if
he watch the growth, that the seed has sprung up,
promising a fruitful harvest.

CHAPTER XIX.

Fellow Travellers on the Kerry Mountains— Bay of Ross by Moonlight—" Fine
Stage-house" — Loss of Appetite — Feet-bathing Extraordinary — Kerry Trick
— Glorious Morning oa the Mountains, in spite of Hanger and Weariness —
Cabin Courtesy — Women a Beast of Burden — Lodging-house at Cahirciveen—
A Saucepan an Unattainable Luxury — Religion and Filth — Guests to the
Fair — Curly-headed Biddy — Battle of the Sticks — Sabbath Services— Protes-
tant Whiskey-Selling — Improved Quarters.

Tuesday, March 18th. — I concluded to go west, and
visit Cahirciveen, a distance of thirty miles ; to walk

320 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xix.

the first ten, and wait for the car till next morning at
the town of Killorglin. ' I soon had company, and a
call for books from every peasant who passed, hav-
ing a basket on my arm, and some tracts upon the
outside. " An' maybe you've somethin' that's nice,"
said one ; giving him a tract, he read with much
attention, u an' sure you don't give these ? There's
not many the like of ye. Ye must be from England."
u From America," I said. " From America ! and
what brought ye here among the poor ?" When the
object was explained, " then ye must be wawkin' for
the good of your soul." This I often found the most
difficult part of the story to be understood. If penance
were not the object, what could induce me to put so
much trouble on myself ?

A kind parting left me with a countryman, who was
going to the same town with a load of flour, and
heavily as his cart was burdened, he insisted on my
taking a seat. u The wawkin' 'ill be heavy on ye." I
declined, but put my basket on his cart, and he carried
it till we reached the miserable dirty town of Killor-
glin. This shrewd Kerryman displayed much of that
common-sense observation, and inquisitiveness, so
peculiar in the peasantry of all Ireland, but especially
in the Kerryites. We reached the filthy town, and
finding no better stopping-place than a public-house,
where a woman was dealing out the u good creature,"
and so forbidding were her looks and everything in
keeping, that, though rain began to fall, I resolved to
go on eight miles further, where the teamster was
going that night, rather than wait for the car next
morning. I was now getting into the heart and
essence of Kerry, the land of O'Connell, the country
noted for the inquisitive disposition and cunning of
the peasantry. And though it would be absurd to
suppose that a county line could designate the charac-
ter and habits of a people, yet throughout all Ireland
there is one grand feature telling you who is Irish, and
definite minor ones telling the stranger there are dif-
ferent children belonging to this common stock, who

CHAP, xix.] CO. OF KERRY. 321

speak different languages, and wear different costumes.
The Kerryites are said to have a mixture of the
Spanish, who many years ago found their way among
these mountains, and the Kerry women have black or
dark hair, and in general are quite handsome.

I had not walked far before I " cast longing linger-
ing looks behind." My feet were blistered, the road
stony, and the rain threatening. Often I sat down
upon the stones by the way-side, feeling quite unable to
proceed. I could get nothing to eat, and my break-
fast had been a light one, and my condition was not the
most desirable.

Night came on. My companion had met with a fel-
low-traveller of the same craft, taking a load of flour
to the town, and each man lit his pipe, and jabbered in
Irish to my full content ; having me sometimes in
sight, and sometimes out of sight, sometimes far in the
rear, sometimes in spaking distance, when my com-
panion would call, u and sure ye aint wairy ; and
when we've crassed the stones a bit, ye'll have a lift on
the cart," or, u it's a fine stage-house ye'll see as there
is in all the three kingdoms." The name of a stage-
house, to an American ear, is associated with all that
is comfort ; and hearing that it was an Englishman that
kept it, I was buoyed up with the hope that 1 should
meet with a clean cheerful hearth, good bread, and
clean lodging, for never did a weary traveller deserve
them more.

The clouds had dispersed, and the young moon was
looking from as pure a sky as was ever spread out over
this misty isle of the sea. The Bay of Ross, with all
its witchery, arose in view. A little mountain girl
had met me from a foot-path that led among the rocks,
and as we suddenly made a turn, which opened the
bay unexpectedly, " and ye'll have as fine a bay,
ma'am, in yer eye as in all the kingdom," fell on my
ear. 1 stopped suddenly, and on either hand

" Bold and craggy rose each mountain form,
To brave the heavens, the lightning, and the. storm."
14*

322 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP.XIX.

The girl, seeing my admiration, triumphantly added,
" and did ye see the like in all your travels, ma'am ? I
must leave ye, lady, for my way lies up the mountain
a bit, and ye'll not be lonely, for the moon looks bright,
and the road is now aisy to the fut. Good night, and
God speed ye on yer journey, and return ye safe to yer
own country."

Through all this I had stood on the margin of that
bay, looking up the heathy crags, then upon the placid
sea, that was here and there reflecting the rays of the
moon, then deep shaded by some cliff that looked down
upon it, sheltering some fisherman's mud-wall hut at
its foot. I uttered not a word, till the "good night'7
of the Kerry-girl awaked me from the reverie. Her
light foot stole quickly away, and I was standing alone,
for my carmen were jabbering far out of sight. Tak-
ing my cruel boots from my blistered feet, J hurried
on till the voice of one of my fellow-travellers bawled
out, " and sure ye aint a gazin' at these black moun-
tains, it's the pratee and the night's sleep I am thinkin'
on." Again! sat down upon a stone, put on my boots,
and determined to make a " virtue of necessity," en-
deavored, as I followed the cart, to forget my pains
by singing. This, to my wonder, drew upon the hill
sides and path, groups of all ages, where I had scarcely
noticed a cabin, giving me a moonlight view of
mountaineers and fishermen, who followed me with
good wishes, and comforted my spirits by telling me of
the " short bit" that was u under my fut," and the
u dacent people'' I should find at the lodging. My
Kerry guide had intentionally passed the stage-house,
and stopping to rest his horse at the top of a hill,
pointed around, saying, " at your left a short bit and
ye'll see the lodgin'."

Here 1 pause, for we were in view of this *' decent
lodgin'," and a little time is requisite to gird ourselves
for the coming conflict.

Supposing I was approaching the " tidy stage-
house," my steps were accelerated, and looking on my
left I aaw a thatched house of considerable dimensions,

CHAP, xix.] CO. OF KERRY.

and a pile of well packed manure at the door. Here
stood two goats and a ram, each with a stout pair of
horns, and the ram was using his with much dexterity
against a spirited girl, who was pulling and beating the
"bold blackguard," to get him aside, that the " lady
might come in." I s.tood at a respectful distance till
the battle was decided in favor of the girl and myself,
and looking in, saw a cow fastened at the entrance,
standing upon straw and filth, and her young calf to the
right, near the fire. The smoke was making its way as
well as it could through the door, eight beings in the
shape of men were lolling upon a settee and benches,
with one stretched at full length upon a table, his head
hanging off at one end, and the mother, three
daughters, the two teamsters, and myself, with geese,
and hens at roost, made up the group in the room and
about the fireside of this a stage house." The whole
together was so complete an overthrow of all my expec-
tations of an Englishman's lodgings, that what with
my miserable feet, empty stomach, and prospects for
the night, I was quite indignant, and pettishly de-
manded of the consequential landlord why he lived with
his cattle in the house, when I saw he had a barn
near.

" The cow has a new calf, ma'am, and she's warmer
in the house."

My senior comrade now ordered a pot of potatoes,
which were soon in preparation, carried to an adjoining
room, and a splinter of dry bog-wood put into a crack
over the table as a torch to guide the way to the
mouth. I was invited to walk in, but though I had
not taken any food but a piece of bread early in the
morning at Killarney, and had walked twenty-five miles
over the roughest path I had ever trod in Ireland
upon the strength of that, yet the sight within the
walls of that cabin hushed the clamor of my sto-
mach, and I left my fellow travellers to sup alone.
The master of the house entertained me with a his-
torical account of Dublin, which he once visited,
assuring me it was twenty miles across, containing

324 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xix.

sixteen hundred public houses of entertainment, and
the laws very strict. No persons meeting on the walks
were allowed to shake hands ; if they did so they were
immediately put in prison ; he had seen it done repeat-
edly. This bundle of lies was well received by the au-
ditors, as this man was quite an oracle of the mountains ;
and modestly telling him that his statements were all
untrue, we turned to another subject.

My feet needing bathing, the pot which had been used
for the boiling of the potatoes was presented, and in
presence of the ten male eye-witnesses gathered about,
the girl who fought the battle with the ram washed
my feet in spite of all remonstrance, the father and mo-
ther urging my consent as being a duty to a " wairy
stranger." While this was in progress, the father
whispered a second daughter to " put on the featherbed
for the lady," and in a half hour my bed-room was in
readiness, with another splinter of bog-wood put into a
crack to light me on the way thither. This bed-room
contained three beds for father and mother, three daugh-
ters, and myself. I was allowed to retire first, the same
attendant standing by in real primitive fashion, to help
me to undress. The washing of the feet of strangers
and guests is, in these mountains and glens of Ire-
land, a literal and beautiful illustration of our Saviour's
example, u So ought ye to wash one another's feet."
They will not allow you to perform this office yourself,
without an absolute refusal ; and then, with apparent
disappointment, they stand aloof, as if deprived of a
most desired favor. The custom of an attendant to
help the stranger undress, is mentioned by Henderson in
his visit to Iceland, where the mother or eldest daughter
claims the honor ; and though the unaccustomed stran-
ger may at first feel it an intrusion, yet the fastidious-
ness is soon relieved by the simple unstudied manner in
which it is done.

In half an hour all were snoring around me, and
soon my troubles found a quietus, which lasted till
five, when my Kerryite stood at the bed-side with a
bog-wood torch. " And may be ye wouldn't like to go

CHAP, xix.] CO. OF KERRY. 325

on so airly ?" Saying " Yes," — " An' in the name of
God we'll go on," — 1 hurried up, and lo ! he was gone,
and I have not seen him since ! This I was told was
genuine Kerry roguery, done for the sole purpose of en-
joying to himself the gratification of my surprise and
bustling to hurry on, and join his company.

I paid a shilling for this rare treat, and hurried to
catch the first gleaming of light upon these towering
heath-topped mountains. The sea again broke upon my
view, the road was made upon a mountain so steep, that
a stone wall was necessary to keep the traveller safe,
and the look down into the sea in many places was truly
terrific. A solitary star was here and there twinkling
in the west, a mountain-top behind me was white with
snow, and as the morning advanced, the rays of the
sun shot athwart it, and rested upon the smooth surface
of the sea, leaving a heavy shadow from the mountain
beneath, giving a picture of light and shade which the
painter could alone delineate. The varied color of the
purple, grey, and brown of the mountain, the wildness,
the song of the morning bird, the " Alps on Alps" ris-
ing to view, the cascades of the most sparkling crystal
gurgling from their sides, transported me beyond loneli-
ness, hunger, or pain of blistered feet, and at short in-
tervals I was fixed to the spot as when looking on the
moonlight view the preceding night. I occasionally
mixed my rude voice with the song, of the bird and
music of the mountain waterfall, and with a heart full
of thanksgiving, did I bless the God of love, that he
had made this isle of the sea. Persecuted and hated
as it is, it has riches of scenery, riches of minerals, and
riches of mind, which all others might covet.

For hours the scenery, though continually varying,
lost none of its interest, and I had walked five miles of
Irish measure of such painful enjoyment, before the
clamors of hunger told me that 1 had taken no bread
since seven on the preceding morning, and here no
bread could be found. Not a cabin had greeted my
eye, save a little clump of mud wall or . rough stone

326 CO. OF KERRF. [CHAP. xix.

huts, where bread would have been as strange a guest
as a plum pudding in the kraal of a Hottentot. Ex-
citement, which had thus far been a kind vehicle, now
gave way, and weariness, pain, and hunger, demanded
their rights. Seeing a little girl dip her bucket in a
clear mountain stream, I saluted her. u And ye look
wairy, lady, wouldn't ye walk in and rest ye a little by
the fire ?" Gladly I followed into the lowly but clean
cabin, and was offered the only seat in the room, and
that was made of braided straw in the shape of a cush-
ion. They tried in every possible way to comfort me,
offering to bathe my feet. Telling them a piece of
bread was what I wanted to buy, the girl, the only one
that could speak English in the family, told me I could
not get any for some miles. " But wouldn't ye stop and
have a potatoe ? they will boil in a little bit." I cheer-
fully consented, and that cabin will ever be associated
with the deepest and kindliest recollections. Two girls,
a son of twenty, and the father and mother, made up
this family. While the potatoes were boiling, I read
the Testament, the girl interpreting to the mother, who
in tears of gratitude was expressing her admiration both
at the reading, and at the goodness of God, who had
suffered a saint going on pilgrimage, as she thought, to
enter her humble cabin. " She's crying, ma'am, be-
cause she can't do as much for her soul as you." Here,
as in many parts of the country, it was difficult to make
them believe that I was not some holy St. Bridget, go-
ing on penance.

The old man was in bed, had been a cripple for
years with the rheumatism ; he had listened to the
reading, for he would occasionally clasp his hands,
and respond in Irish. He crawled out, and drew on
his frightful rags, knelt down and said his prayers,
and by a smile, nod of the head, and hearty grasp of
the hand, gave me a kindly welcome to his cabin.
The potatoes were boiled, and poured into a basket ; a
board was then put upon the top of the pot for a table,
and the potatoes poured upon it, and the family drew
around, giving me a commodious place. We had com-

CHAP, xix.] CO. OF KERRY. 327

fortably adjusted ourselves, when the delighted old
man took an egg from a hen who was sitting near, and
reaching it to me, made signs that I must have it boiled.
His countenance changed into regret when I declined,
and I was sorry that my appetite should then refuse so
cheerfully an offered boon. But toasting some potatoes
on the coals, and eating them without any condiment,
for they had not even salt, I made a good and palatable
breakfast. I gave some books to the children who came
in, and offered the woman a little money for her hospi-
tality ; she thrust it back, giving a frown of half anger
and half grief, and the daughter said, " She gave ye
the potatoes in the name of God, and d'ye think we'd
take money for itl" I put it in the old man's hand,
who told the daughter, u I will take it for God's sake,
but not for the potatoe." Here I found another proof
of the custom among all the peasantry, to refuse money
for hospitality shown to a stranger ; and I gave books,
which were never refused, when presented as tokens of
good will.

I arose to depart with quite different feelings than
those at the house where 1 slept, for though in the most
abject poverty, they seemed cultivated, and full of
the u milk of human kindness." Though their feet had
never trodden upon a parlor carpet, nor the delicacies of
a sumptuous table ever crossed their lips, and though I
might have been the only female with both bonnet and
shoes that ever sat down in their cabin, yet their man-
ners savored more of genuine politeness than did many
of the inmates of lordly houses in cities, boasting of
the greatest refinement. When the poor old man ex-
tended his trembling hand, and the daughter, who was
speaker for them all, pressed me to call on my return,
I felt like parting with friends, and said, " 1 dread to
go alone." The daughter interpreted to the mother,
who said, " She won't go alone, God will go with her."
The expression coining at such a time, and from such
a person, was a word in season, and as valuable to me
as though it had been dropped from the lips of a di-
vine.

338 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP.XIX.

I went out with blessing upon blessing on my
head, and a dreadful day it was. My lameness
became so intolerable, that at short intervals I was
obliged to sit down ; and when this did not refresh
me, I lay down upon a bank of earth overgrown
with grass, with my basket under my head, feeling
that I could go no further. Again rising and reaching
a spring of fresh water, I washed my face, but this
did not ease my pained feet. Again I lay down upon
the wall, with my parasol over my face, when I heard
footsteps, and a female voice saying, "'She's a stranger,
and wearied out; maybe she's sick." "Rouse her,"
said the man. I lifted my head, and saw a man and
woman with a little boy, standing beside me. They
too had travelled many a long and weary mile, and
found this little orphan boy, who had lost father and
mother, and was travelling to a distant country where
he was born, hoping to find a home. " God help all
travellers," said the woman, " I knew you was a
foreigner by your dress and by your tongue." They
bestowed much pity, and left me ; again I made an
effort. ; a girl came out of a cabin. " O, ye're kilt, ye
can't reach the town, ye'd better stop, it's a long and
wairyroad." The next I met were two young women.
Inquiring the distance, one said, " There is no place
you can stop but in some poor cabin. I could give you
a clane bed, and fresh egg, but no mate, for it's Lent,
ma'am, and we aint allowed to ate it. Ye're lost, ye're
destroyed, and ye can't get to town ; it's a long mile to
it now, ma'am."

" She might stop till her feet should be hailed," said
the other, " the cratur."

Thanking them from my inmost heart, I thought
it best to proceed. The car was now coming, and
with joy I hailed it. " No room," was the answer, and
onward was the only alternative. Reaching the bot-
tom of the steep hill, two girls were resting by a wall,
one with a little bundle, the other with a basket of
turf ; to me it looked sufficiently weighty to make a
donkey stagger. il And do you, my girl, carry this on

CHAP, xix.j CO. OP KERRY. 329

your back ?" " I does, ma'am ; but ye are wairy, ma'am,
and have ye long to walk ?" The girl with the small
bundle took up my basket, and the other adjusted the
turf upon her head ; this was done by a rope of straw
put in one side of the basket, and fastened across the
forehead ; a cloth is doubled and put over the forehead
first, that the rope need not fret it. When I looked at
this rosy-faced girl of seventeen and saw the symme-
try of her features, the brilliancy of her eye, and
beauty of her teeth, what a pity and what a sin, I
thought, to take such a finished piece of God's work-
manship and convert it to a beast of burden ! Weary
and crippled as I was, my real condition called for
fresh gratitude, that I was not born in oppressed Ire-
land, where woman can never be woman if not born to
an earthly inheritance.

Asking the girl if she was not tired of my basket,
" O no, ma'am, I wish it was greater, if it would
lighten your fut." We sat down upon a bank, and
taking the books from my basket, I presented each of
them with portions of the Scripture. Offering the girl
who had carried them a tract, telling her it contained
an interesting story, " I will take the Word of God,"
was the answer. This " Word of God" at the south
seems to possess peculiar value in the minds of many
of the peasantry, in spite of all training, and often
have they not only astonished, but instructed me,
by the appropriate applications they have made of this
Word.

Can you show me to a neat lodging in Cahirci-
veen, where they do not sell avhiskey ?" The girl with
the turf said, " show her to Mickey M'Gloukin." " I
have been thinking of that, and she has rooms, and can
give her a clanebed, an' is a nice approachable woman."
This all looked inviting; but, following the girl to the
door, I was met by the same dark and dirty room, the
same crowd of starers, with pipes and attendant appur-
tenances. Flinging myself upon the first stool, and
asking for lodging, she answered, " An' I wish I could
give ye room, but the house is all in disawrdher,

330 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xix.

tairin' it up." " But can you give me a clean bed?"
" That I can." " And a room where I can be alone,
away from gapers who are ready to swallow me up
wherever I go ?" "I can give ye a room to yourself,
ma'am."

So fatigued and faint was I, that the two goats and
ram could have had no terrors, had a comfortable
room and chair been before me, rather than striving to
walk further.

" Can I get any food in town?1' "You can; put
on the kittle, Biddy, to make some tay, and take off
the pot of potatoes." " Keep on the pot of potatoes, I
will eat some of them: I take no tea." u Aw, and
where's the like of ye ?" I sant out and procured some
cocoa, but nothing in the house could be found that
could prepare the article. Everything was named be-
longing to pot, kettle, iron, copper, or tin ; but the
two-pailful pot for potatoes, and the tay kettle for tay,
were the only vessels. " Run out, Biddy, and ask
Kate for her tin cup." The cup was procured, with
the injunction " not to put it over the fire." " And how
am I to boil the cocoa if the cup must not go to the
fire ?" u And that you can't. Never mind, she hasn't
the sinse."

My table was in a room where the kind woman was
obliged to throw down straw, to keep my feet from the
mud while eating. This woman was very religious ;
mass and the rosary were all her theme. It was the
last week in Lent, or rather " Passion Week," and
" Passion Week" it was indeed to this devoted woman.
She talked of Holy Jesus, the blessed Virgin, inces-
santly, when she was not scolding her servants and
children to make them more devout. When a few
moments could be spared, she would throw her cloak
over her head, run to chapel, return, and drop upon
her knees in any part of the house, bidding all to be
quiet till her prayers were finished. Taking occasion
once to say to her, that Christ commanded us to pray
in secret, she looked with astonishment as though all
was upset ; and in a half hour she was dragging her

CHAP. xix.J CO. OP KERRY. 331

little girl of six into a retired place to say her prayers,
adding, " it will do you no good if you say 'em here."
She wept much when I read some tracts, and regretted
deeply that she could not read the Scriptures ; " An'
ye're the one that can read the c Word of God.' " She
was a strange compound of good and evil, and more to
be pitied than derided. She seemed to hunger for what
she could not obtain, and had ears to hear, but who
should teach her ? " She has done what she could"
in her own way, and could heaven be attained by
jumps and snatches, and " Passion Week" continue
during her earthly pilgrimage, this woman would cer-
tainly be entitled to a prominent seat among the
guests. My bed was a good one and a clean one, in
this she said truly ; but the giving a room to myself
was a little slip of the tongue, for it contained a bed
for herself, husband, and two children, besides another
in waiting the first night, but the second a goodly host
of Kerrymen were on the spot. A few moments before
one, I was awakened by the clatter of three pairs of
heavy shoes, and loud talking, and heard the woman
say, "you can two of you go into the next room."
" No, we'll all quat here," was the reply. They did
u quat here" at the foot of my bed, and jabbered awhile
in Irish, and then were snoring in full chorus through
the night.

It would be no more than rendering what is just and
equal to say, that I was neither lonesome nor afraid
of robbers, and I really believe that the Irish pea-
santry are as free from coveting " other men's gold,
or silver, or apparel" as it is possible for a people to
be, wretched and poor as they are. They will ask
for a penny with a very good grace, and load you with
blessings when you bestow it, but they neither upbraid
when refused, nor seem envious at the purse or equi-
page of any neighbor, however heavy or splendid they
may be. li We must be content with what the Al-
mighty God sends us," or, " must not fly in the
face of God Almighty," seems not only a current

332 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xix.

phraseology in their mouth, but a fixed principle of the
heart.

On Saturday a fair was to be held ; my feet had im-
proved a little, and I should have left, but rain came
on, and I stayed in doors. Friday night the gathering
from the country commenced, and seven new lodgers
required some little change, and I was removed into the
gang-way at the head of the stairs, where all must pass
on the way to bed. When each had gone to his lair, I
went to mine, and when each had risen and clattered
through, I did the same, and there was no nook in which
I could ensconce myself but the kitchen. Here had
gathered the whole fraternity, besides many of the sis-
terhood from without, some sitting on stools, some on
chairs, others standing in waiting posture, some squat-
ting near me, and looking me sharply in the face. The
question, impious as it was, did certainly arise, whether
these creatures had immortal souls, and could be made
society for angels ? Yes, through the blood of the
Lamb they could, but if nothing unclean can enter hea-
ven, they must not yet be quite ready.

They were waiting for breakfast, and as allcould not
afford "bread and tay," the great pot of potatoes was
in constant requisition, one " squad" waiting on their
haunches for the first to be served. One of a little
more energy than the rest was hurrying the boiling by
thrusting in his cane, with which he had walked
through the mud, and from the bottom turning up a
prize, squeezing it, and if not fit for mastication put-
ting it back. No sooner was one batch done, than an-
other supplied its place over the fire until the whole
were served.

Curly-headed Biddy had lodged in a corner among
the forest of legs, where she sat busily fixing her
hair, when the mother bade her instantly go away,
and say her prayers. Biddy heeded it not ; " go away
and say your prayers, I tell you, and say them in pri-
vate, too." Biddy would not leave the warm spot till
pulled out, and in a few woments she was in the gang-
way where I lodged, in the middle of the floor upon

CHAP, xix.] CO. OF KERRY. 333

her knees, her fists together, and mumbling her prayers
as devoutly as a mad child could do.

It was now eleven, and when the third or fourth pot-
full was poured out, the woman asked me if I would
take a couple of potatoes. I told her they had been
boiled in dirty water, and besides every man who had
a cane had washed it in the pot, so I must be excused.
And here followed a profound lecture on the filth
of the country, telling her that if the people had no
other sins attached to them but this, it would be suffi-
cient to keep them out of heaven. " To be sure it will ;
sloth and filth are two deadly sins. God'save the poor
Irish !" This was said with much feeling, and cruel as
might appear so severe a rebuke on so humble a peni-
tent, I enforced it with double severity by adding that
the county of Kerry was the most hopeless of all places
I had seen, and I could devise no better way of cleans-
ing them than by hunting them out with dog and gun,
and burning their cabins after them. She bore this
with apparent resignation, not seeming to feel herself in
the least implicated.

But the fair. This, like all other fairs, was managed
by buying and selling to the best advantage, for the
Kerryites are characterized by their tact in bargain-
ing, as well as in all other movements. The men were
certainly better clad than any I had seen at previous
fairs, and what met my warmest approbation was, the
corduroys were not numerous ; substantial blue cloth
pantaloons adorned the legs of most of the Kerryites.
A stripling clerk of the parish priest's entered, and
requested to examine my books, as their care over the
flock required that they should be particular that no-
thing should interfere with their religion. u We wish
to know whether your Irish testaments are a true trans-
lation, by a bishop of our own church." Showing
him one, he could not satisfy his mind without taking
it away for a close examination. " We have had some
trouble in this part of the country, by men professing
to be teachers, and sowing errors among the people.
And are you, ma'am, sent out by any religious sect ?"

334 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xix.

Answering him that I was sent by none but by the Lord
Jesus Christ, and, as far as I was capable, his doctrine
and his alone was what I inculcated, and what I should
inculcate, and these doctrines I found contained in that
book he held in his hand — he walked away with the
Testament to decide on its merits, promising to see me
again, but never did.

" A fight ! a fight !" was now the cry.
" Up flew the windows all." *

Sticks were flourishing in the air, and to appearance
they were fighting each other instead of the persons.
One old woman rushed into the crowd to rescue her
Paddy, and she was dragged along regardless of age or
sex, her cloak was torn from her, her cap set awry (bon-
net she had none), and while one pulled one way, ano-
ther seized the other side, till the sight from the ludi-
crous became painful, lest she should be u pulled in
pieces." The priest was called, but they heeded not
the threats and denunciations from the altar, which he
assured them they should have on the morrow. Sacri-
fices were more to them than altars or peace-offerings,
and he was obliged to leave them as he found them, to
rattle their sticks, as they did till midnight, though it
was next day reported that no dead or wounded were
carried from the field that night.

In the evening a tidy well-dressed young woman
came in, whose dialect and manner were so much like
the Americans, that I asked if she had not been there.
She answered that she had resided in New York ten
years, and returned to take charge of a sickly mother.
I had noticed throughout all Ireland when a servant
girl returns from America that a great change is evi-
dent in dress, manner, and language. She ceases to
become a beast of burden, and the basket on her back,
which she then 'throws off, she will never lift again.
She confines her services more to the inside of the

* They certainly had windows in Cahirciveen, and whole panes
of glass, which only needed a little cleaning to give comfortable
light within.

CHAP. xix.J CO. OF KERRY. 335

cabin, and this undergoes a manifest change for the
better.

Sabbath. — The rain was copious, but I made my way
to a Protestant church, and heard a good sermon
on the resurrection. The speaker had but a few to lis-
ten to his graphic description of the rolling away of the
stone from the door of the sepulchre, yet some of the
bonnetless women who were seated in the corner
of the church reminded me of the lingering Maries,
who watched at the cross, and followed the sacred
body of their Saviour, and beheld where they laid him.
When the services closed, I inquired of a gentleman if
he could direct me to a comfortable lodging-house. He
was the parochial school-teacher, and quite a favorite in
the parish, and he sent me with a girl whose parents
were Protestants and sold whiskey ; a house not a whit
before the one I had left, either in cleanliness or moral-
ity. It is a stubborn fact, that where this traffic in ar-
dent spirits is carried on, there is confusion and every
evil work.

I took some potatoes and bread with them, while
they dined on roast veal, pork, and cabbage, the good
woman saying it was Easter Sunday, and the family
expected something new. It was evident here that
the reading of the Scriptures was not so much needed,
as the right practising of their principles. When the
teacher called to invite me with him to tea, I waited
not for a second invitation, and when I had reached
his house, my lady sent word that she could not lodge
me, though she had promised to do so. The school-
master, who seemed to hold the keys of the Protestant
part of the parish, kept me quiet till half-past ten, by
assuring me he could fix me in comfortable lodgings
at almost any hour. We went to the house of a Me-
thodist, but they were in bed ; went away, and demur-
red awhile. " We must return," said my persevering
gallant, " and knock them up." It was done, and the
servant gave me a tidy bed in a tidy room, and long
life to the good people of the house, whose kind salute
in the morning emphatically impressed me with the

336 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xx.

force of the sweet passage, "I was a stranger and ye
took me in." I was urged to take breakfast, and no
charges but that of being " faithful unto death."

CHAPTER XX.

An Americanized Irishman — Armed Defence — Modern Mermaids — Island of Va-
lentia — Employment and a good Landlord — Conversible Coast Guard — A
Child's Mute Appeal — Poverty and Low Rents — Ridiculous Old Custom —
Derrynaue— O'Connell's Library— Cold Comfort— Hospitable Port in a Storm
— Lighthearted Burdenbearers — Kerry Dancing and Kerry Kindness.

Monday. — My walk this morning was intended to be
to the island of Valentia, and fortunately a man called
who was going to the place ; he had been in America,
and, as he said, " come back because he was a fool,"
and was now so poor he could not return. He had
lived in Vermont, and found them 'u so hospitable, so
iiate, and so well-fed, that he could never be content
in Ireland again, feediu' on the potatoe ;" neither could
he again ever endure the " boorish manners of the
blackguard Irish among the black mountains. Don't
they kill you, followin' you about, and starin' at you ?"
As he spoke, out poured from a smoky cabin seven
ill-looking lads and lasses, with most of them an arm
over the ey^s, the better to take observation. But the
poor things had but just prepared to take a sure aim,
when my care-taking guide pounced upon them with
his uplifted stick, threatening unsparing vengeance if
every " dirty scrawl" didn^t that instant go into the
house. They fled like frighted sheep over a wall, and
never looked back upon us till secured in the door of
the cabin, where, joined by the mother, they could
take a survey in spite of threats and sticks. " And
you're the mother that rair'd the blackguards, and
your smoky cap tells that you're fitted to the work."
A couple of girls had kept behind us for some distance,

CO. OF KERRY. 337

either from modesty or fear of my guide, who flourished
his stick at all who passed, if he or she had the audacity
to venture the most side-way glance at my ladyship.
Hearing their footsteps, he suddenly turned, and,
"Where are ye goin' ? Go a-head, and not have the
boldness to be paradin' along behind the lady, and
many's the long day that ye'll ever see her like again."
The poor girls had committed no misdemeanor, and
passed on abashed, not knowing what the choice thing
could be that had dropped among them, requiring such
watchful protection.

In vain I begged him to spare the well-intentioned
women and children, and let them gratify a curiosity
natural to all. It isn't me they'll humbug ; they'd stare
the life out of ye, before ye'd reach the say." As we
approached the shore, my guide pointed to a wretched
cabin, saying, " There lives a proud mother, who rair'd
a gal of her own sort, who was employed gathering the
sea-weed from the rocks all her days. She went to New
York, and I called upon her there, and because my
broadcloth wasn't so fine as the gentlemen about her,
she refused to see me, and went into a chamber to shun
me. Ah, and wasn't she sure I should tell of her kin
that belonged to her, and the smoky hut where she
gathered up her heels !''

The employment of females here, though I had
seen a little of it before, was of that degrading kind,
that I felt like revolting from the sight. Men and
women go out in boats, to gather sea-weed that ad-
heres to the rocks, which is used for manure. They
take a long pole with hooks upon the end, wade in,
standing often to the armpits in water, and scrape the
weed from the rocks, put it in the boats, and the men
take it to shore ; the women remaining in the sea
often through the day. At night they take a basket-
full upon their backs, and bend to their wretched
cabins, to boil their potatoes, and lie down upon the
straw ; and in the morning awake to the same hopes,
and go to the same employment. Woman is here
15

338 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xx.

worse than a beast of burden, because she is often made
to do what the beast never does.*

We crossed in a ferry-boat to the rock-bound island
of Valentia, where the white billow was dashing in
playful wantonness against every bold rock, which
like well-built battlements, guarded the coast. By the
skill of my guide a lodging-place was provided, though
at first refused. The woman was followed into the
kitchen, where my qualifications were so portrayed,
that they won at last upon the young bride, who con-
sented. This neat little spot looked like a haven of
rest, compared with the town I had left. The cottages
were tasteful, the yards cleanly, and the little village
was quite a manufacturing one. A slate quarry, of
great extent upon the coast and upon the mountain, was
in excavation ; two hundred men, and sometimes more,
here found employment for a shilling a day, and this has
been in operation for nearly thirty years. An English
nobleman, much beloved by the islanders, owns the
quarry, stays continually upon the island, and spends
his money there ; his wife likewise is a pattern of good-
ness. His house stands upon the sea coast, with no wall
but the surges of the ocean, which gives a happy relief
to eye and mind while passing along this precipitous
shore.

The light-house is an object of great interest, being
built upon a rock, which was once Cromwell's fort ;
one of his cannons now stands upon the wall, fixed
there as a memento of his heroic deeds. The family
keeping the house are from Dublin, and quite accom-
plished. 1 went out and seated myself upon a rock,

* " Eight months in the year we drag at this, praise God," said a
j>oor woman. I looked back to the garden of Eden, and was it
frr this that a help-mate was made for man ? Is this the being
that is destined to mould the minds of hi> children, to look well to
the ways of his household, and make him "known as he sitteth at
the gate among the elders ?" Surely Ireland's Bible teachers must
have added their own theology to that of Henry, Clarke, and
Scott, to have produced such a version as this for the station of
woman.

CHAP, xx.] CO. OF KERRY. 339

overlooking the sea, watching the poor women gathering
the sea-weed and the dashing of the surges at my feet,
till a sprinkling of rain, and the lateness of night,
warned me of my distance from home. I thought of the
poor exile of Erin, and wondered not that

" In dreams he revisits the sea-beaten shore,"

of his own beautiful isle, where the finger of the Al-
mighty has pencilled so many sublimities as well as
beauties. When I reached my lodgings I was as com-
pletely drenched as the poor women with their sea-weed,
and had quite spoiled a valuable coat and velvet bon-
net.

The house was tolerable, but the charge was so high
that I went away quite dissatisfied, and gave them a
cold parting ; disgusted that any of the Jrish should
take advantage of Americans, who have so many of
the destitute of that nation upon their shores. Going
out to look at the slate-cutting machinery, the whole
island seemed to be on the spot. One bawled out,
u Here is a man who has been a long time in your
country." The man responded, " How do you like
Ireland ? I hope they trate ye well. They ought,
Americans are so kind to the Irish there. They are
the kindest craturs in the world, ma'am, in Vermont."
I found in myself that love of country and pride of
heart, which 1 had endeavored to suppress, when ho
said that he had been in the town of my birth, and was
treated with the greatest hospitality. The machinery
for sawing, cutting, and polishing slate, is quite a cu-
riosity, mostly performed by steam ; and is a work of
great utility, much to the credit of the proprietor. The
island itself is on the whole a well regulated and
cleanly place. The little church on the hill tells the
traveller, that, though the worshippers are few, yet
the assembling of those few together is not forgotten.
The Catholics have a chapel on the other side of the
Island.

My American friend was all attention, conducted
me to the boat, and left me in the protection of a Ker-

340 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP.IX.

ryite, who was to accompany me on my way to Water-
ville. I took out a portion of the Douay Testament,
which he read aloud as he walked, making comments
which would have done credit to any who had been
taught the Scriptures, like Timothy, from a child.
The Word of God to the peasantry of Ireland is a treat
which they greatly enjoy, especially among the moun-
tains. As I parted with my companion, he kindly of-
fered to send me his boy and donkey to carry me a few
miles, if I would call at his cabin. I declined, for the
purpose of seeing both the country and the people, and
giving him the Scriptures he held in his hand, I said
adieu, not without hoping that the ten miles' walk we
had performed together, would be blessed by the Sa-
viour to the good of this unsophisticated peasant.
What an honor to be counted worthy to meet these poor
of this world on their own level, and tell in their listen-
ing ears the story of Calvary. How many opportuni-
ties of doing good when walking by the way, as well as
when sitting in the house !

I now reached, as the sun was setting, the neat
little well-known cottage by the sea-side, called the
" Sportsman's Hotel." I called for lodgings ; at first
was refused, because they were building an addition
to the house, and had no place to put a " dacent body ;"
but telling them that I was an American, and easily
packed away, I was immediately made welcome and
comfortable. In the morning, offering to pay my
bill, the woman declined any compensation, and sent
me on to the " kind-hearted O'ConnelPs," where she
had seven years resided, and whose family she knew
would treat me with the utmost civility, adding, u I
was told never to let a stranger pass the threshold
without placing food before him." Leaving the little
town, the crowd was so great, that I enquired where
could so many lodge as met me at the doors. One
gentleman in good costume came out, invited me in,
whispered to his wife, and she put down a couple of
eggs, and I was urged to breakfast. Telling them I
had just breakfasted, " Can I do anything for you ?

CHAP, xx.] CO. OF KERRY. 341

You shall be welcome to anything we have, if you will
eat or drink."

'* I do not dispute an Irishman's sincerity when he
offers kindness, especially if he is not an ' upstart ' in life."
" I am not Irish, but English ; have been in America
when a boy, and well remember their kindness."

In fact the kindness of my country appeared in quite a
nattering aspect ; and though as an individual, while
there, 1 had not experienced an overcoming weight of the
commodity, I was now in the way of getting it through
another fortunate channel.

Saying good morning to police men, laboring men,
women, and children, and passing on, a resolute man
interrupted me by u Let me inquire are you a foreigner?
I am likewise a stranger here, a coast-guard ; and
did you ever see or hear anything like Kerry ? The
people jabbering like black-birds, and these wild rocks
and mountains, the most frightful, ma'am. I'm from
the north ; and where are you going ?" " To O'Con-
nell's, sir." " And there you'll find the hospitality;
but be sure you take the new road, it's the smoothest
under foot. And I wish I was going too ; but I'm sta-
tioned here, and so I can't go with you ; stationed here
to guard the coast against smugglers, do ye under-
stand?" There was something peculiar in this man's
appearance ; he seemd to have caught the wildness of
the scenery around him, or his occupation had given
him that watchful restlessness that made me feel uneasy
in his presence, and I was relieved when he said, "I
must not walk any further with you, ma'am."

I was just settling into a quiescent state, when from
behind me one called out, running at full speed, " Par-
don me, lady, you are from New York ; you never heard
of a dress-maker by the name of Roan, a daughter of
mine, who has not written me in nearly two years, and
isn't it in Greenwich street she stops?"

" I do not, sir, recollect having the honor of her ac-
quaintance." "I'm quite sorry, ma'am, that business
takes me out of town ; I would take my carriage, and
carry you to Derrynane That's the place ! And ye'll

342 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xx.

not return to-day, nor to-morrow. Keep the new road,
ma'am, and the Almighty God go with you."

Again was I left to myself, and the strange view
around me ; not knowing how to choose, which most
to admire, or which to enjoy, so divided was my
mind between mountain wildness, roaring dashing
waves, green sea and rocky island, wild mountaineers
leaping from rock to rock, or climbing up the wall
made for the protection of the passenger upon the pre-
cipitous steep, and the amazed children who followed
me in companies. Hearing the quick patting of feet
behind me, I turned, and a little girl of about six
years looked me in the face, saluting me in Irish, and
anxious to be understood. Six others were in pursuit,
leading each other, and jabbering in rotation. 1 sa-
luted them, and the youngest screeched in fright,
turning and giving side-glances. A little coaxing at
length consoled her, and though she appeared to feel
safe in my sight, yet had I dropped from the clouds in
their midst, they could not have been more at a loss to
know what the being could be. At length, all but the
first who saluted me, turned up a stony ascent, and
were soon out of sight in the mountain passes — as
pretty a group of faces as town or city ever could pro-
duce. The little companion who staid behind, kept
close to my side, looking me smilingly in the face. I
gave her a penny ; but this was not the thing desired,
for she indifferently took it, looked at me, then up the
mountain, settling her countenance into a look of dis-
appointment. Then starting as from a reverie, as if
some happy thought had directed her what next ex-
pedient to try ; but seeing me at a loss to get her
meaning, in apparent despair she turned through a
niche in the wall, down a steep descent, to a cabin near
the sea. I have ever regretted that I did not follow
this sweet child, for she was clean, and her tiny white
feet would have adorned the drawing-room of any lord
in Kerry. 1 might have ascertained whether it was
the instinct of hospitality, so strongly implanted in the
Irish heart, or whether some case of suffering which

CHAP, xx.] CO. OF KERRY. 343

she wished me to relieve, was the cause of her great
earnestness. 1 looked after her, as her stealthy foot
made its way cautiously down the rocks; and as I saw
the last waving of her dark hair upon the breeze, I
asked, why has a wise God left so much of his finished
handy work to dwell in dens and caves of the earth,
where hares and rabbits, owls and magpies, are the
only companions to reciprocate their worth ?

Seeing a hole in the wall, and a hut upon the other
side, I crept through, and found a widow sitting in a
corner, with a pig on the skirt of her dress, asleep, and
three little children beside. Seeing no bed, table, or
cupboard, but a nitche in the wall, in which were a
couple of plates, I asked her where she slept. u Here,
ma'am," pointing to a pile of straw by her side. She
said she had a bed, but no place to put it. "I wish I
had something to give you to eat, but I have not a bit
of bread, nor a potatoe." " I wish I had something to
give you," I answered, " for I see no way how you can

This was a fair specimen of all the mountaineers
around the residence of O'Connell. But when I in-
quired the price of ground, and found th^y were giving
but a shilling an acre, for the same kind of mountain
land I had seen els2where rented for twenty and
twenty-four shillings, and no ejectments allowed, I
wondered not so much that they were loud in their
praises of him, and that I heard the voice of singing
and of laughter from cabin and rock, from potatoe-
ridge and bog, wherever a man was using his spade
or hunting the hare. From the top of the mountain
here may be seen the celebrated light-house, on what
is called the Skellig-rock ; a dangerous place to ap-
proach, and where the adventurer must sometimes
pass a week before he finds it safe to leave. This is
the place to which the people of Kerry and Cork, on
shrove-tide eve, amuse themselves by hunting out the
old maids and widows, putting them into carts, on
asses, and all kind of ludicrous vehicles, to send them
to Skellio:-rocks. The streets of Cork were alive with

344 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xx.

this class of people, pursuing such as they deemed
worthy a residence there, and often is the joke carried
so far, that some are conveyed miles out of town, and
set down, and left to make their way back as they
can.

When I reached the summit of the mountain, and
the sea with its wild shore, islands, and dashing waves
broke upon my view, I knew the abode of the won-
derful man O'Connell was near, and I paused to take
a full view of the wildness around. Here then did
the keen, deep-meaning, and nondescript eye of this
never-tiring agitator seek out an abode ; here were the
principles, the agitations, of the ever-stirring mind nur-
tured and fed ; and as here, wave after wave dashes
against the rock, so has agitation after agitation dashed
with impetuosity against the Gibraltar of England, as
yet impregnable. But hush ! a woman must walk
softly on political pavements. A circuitous well-made
road wiuds down the mountain, and you see not the
indescribable mansion that is embosomed in rock and
tree, till within a few paces of the spot. Here no
walls or surly porter, demanding a pass, hedge up the
entrance ; but a path like that to a New-England farm-
house, leads you on, and you may take your choice of
entrance into the heterogeneous abode, by kitchen,
chapel, or hall ; choosing the latter, I rang the bell.
An old man answered, saying, " I am only a stranger,
and will inquire if you can have admittance." A
waiter came next, and ushered me into the parlor, say-
ing all were from home, but Maurice O'Connell and the
house-keeper. The countenance of the latter was to
me better fitted to drive away the enemy than to in-
vite the friend ; and the sequel proved more than I
dreaded, when I met her cold penurious look and
manner. She showed me into the library, which pre-
sented a tolerable assortment of Encyclopaedias, lives
of saints, Waverly Novels, law books, &c. The draw-
ing-room contained all that is needed for ornament or
use. The portrait of O'Connell, engraved to the life,
taken while in the penitentiary, and one taken some

CHAP, xx.] CO. OF KERRY. 345

years before, are not the least objects of interest in the
room. The portraits of his wife, daughters, grand-
daughters, and sons, form the most important orna-
ments in the house. Among the family group, are a
brother and sister, the sister in the act of swinging,
sitting in a rope ; tl>e little brother with a roguish
smile, holding the rope, and a little dog looking on,
enjoying the sport. It is the happiest touch of nature,
in portrait painting, I ever saw. A chapel, not finished,
is attached to one end of the house. A tablet giving
its history and the name of the founder, is being in
readiness, as a fixture for future ages. A well-fed
priest was walking about, ready at any notice to per-
form any religious duty, within the pale of his con-
science, for the good of the family.

The walks, the beach, and the foaming sea, the
tower upon an eminence — the all-manner of shaped
angles and triangles, added and superadded to the main
body of the house — the place where it stands, and the
person who designed it — all taken into consideration,
make it a house and spot quite different from all others.
I lingered, and looked, and left it as I found it, and can
no more describe it than before I saw it.

A lunch was before me at my return into the house ;
the long table was in the dining-room, around which
are seated, when O'Connell is at home, a goodly num-
ber of his children ; and sometimes thirty-six grand-
children have been seated together there, with priest and
guests, partaking the bounties of this hospitable
board.

While enjoying my bread and cheese, the threaten-
ing clouds began to drop rain : it was now twenty
minutes past four. I had a wild mountainous walk of
five miles before me, and the wind was howling tre-
mendously among the bleak mountains. I said to the
housekeeper, " I dread the walk, my feet are blistered,
and should the storm increase upon the mountain, as
there is no place to lodge, what shall I do ?" " It
will be bad for you," was the reply of this fixture in
female form, as she showed me out of the house. I

346 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xx.

said, " Should you ever visit New York, 'I will do as
much for you, if you will call on me." My fate was
now fixed ; I was out and the door was shut, and never
did the bolting of the prison gate of a condemned cul-
prit, grate more harshly upon the ear, as the turnkey
"• shut him in," than did the closing of this door of the
" Agitator," when its last echo died on my ear. It was
then the " Repeal" of this union of wind and rain was
the pitiful cry of my heart. The rain and wind were
in my face, and the wild mountain before me. When
I could face the storm no longer, I turned my back,
and endeavored to walk in that way. A poor woman
and her basket were sheltered under the wall, and she
cried out, u And why, ma'am, are ye out in this
stawrm ? and sure why didn't ye lodge at Derrynane ?"
" Because they did not ask me," I replied. " And sure
they wouldn't turn a stranger out on the wild mountains
in such a stawrm as this ?" u And sure they did," was
all I could say.

I went on as I could, till the mountain was ascended ;
then the wind was at my back, and I soon had trouble
to keep upon my feet ; and for some perches there was
actual danger of being dashed against the rock on one
side, or thrown over the wall into the sea, upon the
other. Two men upon a horse were blown aside from
the path, and I in the same direction. One hat fell
from a rider's head, and was blown a good distance,
when my parasol held it fast, till a footman could carry
it to the owner ; and we were all going zig-zag as best
we could, till the repeated gusts had spent their fury.
I was once forced against a rock, and saved myself
from being lost by clinging to a shelving part of it,
till the gust past over. It was a sad night — one
which cannot soon be forgotten, and while my despair-
ing grasp held me to the slippery crag, my soliloquy
was, u And is it from the house of Daniel O'Connell
that a female stranger has been driven this perilous
night ? Is it from the house which, above all others, I
had been told in my own country, was the welcome re-
sort and tarrying place for every stranger of every

CHAP, xx.] CO. OF KERRY. 347

clime, that I had been virtually turned out to perish,
if not saved by little else than a miracle ?" True
Daniel O'Connell was not at home, (happy thought !)
but where was the u generous Maurice ?" He was sit-
ting at home by a comfortable dinner, and might not
have been told that a stranger had been there. Though
I dealt out no anathemas, yet I did say, that the un-
feeling instrument of my suffering, his housekeeper,
was a bad representative of a house like his — that the
hospitable abode of such a man, should have a sentinel
at its post that had a common share of common hospi-
tality. Fool that I was, that I did not ask her, as I
thought, to let me pass the night in the tower, rather
than risk my life on this bleak mountain ! Again I
ventured on amid pelting rain and furious blasts, till
night overtook me, and a company of mountain pea-
santry met me. a And where have ye been, this bleak
evening — not to Derrynane ?" " Yes, to Derrynane."
"But I'm sorry 1 didn't know it. I live a mile from
the Abbey, and would have made ye quite comfortable
in my cabin ; and why didn't ye stay t I've been
looldn' for ye. I wanted to talk of New York." It
was not New York that was in my thoughts. I cared
not a whit whether they were burning or freezing ; it
was the bleak rugged mountain— the mad, foaming sea,
the whirlwind, and the storm that 1 was combating;
and above, and beyond all, it was the " It will be
bad for you," of the penurious voice of the housekeeper
at the door of O'Connell, that was ringing in my ears.
At ten I reached the hospitable dwelling of Jerry
Quirks. " Welcome, welcome to my house, and stay
as long as ye will, without any charges." Never was
a salute more timely ; never did a salute sound more
sweetly.

Next morning the tempest was still high, and
venturing upon ths strand, 1 there saw, as at Valentia,
crowds of females busied ; and speaking to one, she re-
plied, " These stawrmy nights, ma'am, blow good
luck to the poor ; thry wash up the say-weed, and that's
why ye soe so many now at work."

348 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xx.

The company increased, till I counted more than
sixty ; and busy, merry work was made of it ; running
with heavy loads upon their heads, dripping with wet,
exultingly throwing them down, and bounding away in
glee. Truly, " A merry heart doeth good like a medi-
cine." u And are you not cold?" UO no, ma'am,
the salt say keeps us warm ; the salt say, ma'am, never
lets us take cold." u And how many days must you
work in this way, before you get a supply ?" " Aw,
sometimes not fawrty, but scores of days." " And all
you have for your labor is the potatoe ?" " That's all,
ma'am, that's all ; and it's many of us that can't get
the sup of milk with 'em, no, nor the salt ; but we can't
help it, we must be content with what the good God
sends us."

She hitched her basket over her shoulder, and in
company with one older than herself, skipped upon the
sand made wet with rain, and turning suddenly about,
gave me a pretty specimen of Kerry dancing, as prac-
ticed by the peasantry. u The sand is too wet, ma'am,
to dance right well on," and again shouldering her
basket, with a a God speed ye on ye'r journey," leaped
away.

I looked after them among the rocks, more with ad-
miration for the moment than with pity ; for what
hearts, amid splendor and ease, lighter than these ?
And what heads and stomachs, faring sumptuously
every day, freer from aches than theirs, with the pota-
toe and sup of milk ? This woman, who danced before
me, was more than fifty, and I do not believe that the
daughter of Herodias herself, was more graceful in her
movements, more beautiful in complexion or symme-
try, than was this " dark-haired" matron of the moun-
tains of Kerry.

Wandering among the cabins, I found nothing new,
but the same questions of u What brought ye the long
way?" and the same gush of kindness from a poor
cabin woman, who followed me out with such warm
wishes, that it was affecting — " What can I give the
lone stranger, who has come the long way to see us ?

CHAP, xxi.] CO. OF KERRY.

I've not a hap'orth ; and could ye eat the egg ? May-
be ye hav'n't had the breakfast ? I wished I had a
penny to give ye." Assuring her that I needed no
breakfast, and that it was but few pennies that I requir-
ed, thanking her again and again, from my inmost soul,
I left her door, and heard in the distance, "Aw, she's
light on the fut, the cratur."

On my return to my room, I found a work called
" Rambles in the South of Ireland," by an English
lady, prettily and candidly written ; free from that
sarcasm on Irish character and Irish manners so cal-
culated to throw contempt on the^ nation, which such
works are, and which is quite too prevalent among
writers who visit the country to write a book. Some
hap'hazard expression, made to give the sentence a
lively turn or happy ending, may fix a libel on a peo-
ple, which will be read and believed by many genera-
tions.

CHAPTER XXI.

Rough Road— A Kind Offer declined— Lonely and Late— The Funeral Lament
— Maurice Raheley's Lodging Hou.se — Perfumed Bedchamber— Sunrise on the
Kerry Mountains — Novel Duet — Mountain Air or City Smoke? — Irish Roads
—A Tetotaler in Bad Company Awful Night— Sabbath of Rest at Killarney
—Gap of Dunloe— Guide Persecution— The "Crazy Woman"— Where to
spend the night — Bright Wood Fire — Recollections of Childhood — Dinis Island
—Debt of Gratitude.

THE time of my departure drew nigh, though the
wind had not abated, nor the sea become quiescent ;
yet the sun found a narrow loop-hole to look down a
few moments, and say, " Make your farewell in haste,
if you would have my company through the lone moun-
tain before you." It was three o'clock, and a walk of
eleven Irish miles, covered with broken stones, fresh
from the hammer, was before me. Killoyra was my
destination, and Maurice Raheley's house, which I was

350 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxi.

assured was " nate and tidy." The hospitable inn-
keeper would take no pay for lodging or board. Bless-
ed inn ! O, if the world, for every ten miles, were
filled with the like, then might travellers eat, drink,
smoke, and sleep, without this melting away of gold
and silver.

A little mountain girl, from a rocky foot-path leading
from the ascent, accosted me. " Andsure ye hav'n't far
to walk alone ?" Answering her, "To the foot of the
mountain." " To the fut of the mountain! and the
night 'ill be on ye ; but I'm in the way with ye a good
bit." She was a pleasant companion for two miles,
when a comely well-dressed young man, on a good
horse, accosted me, wondering at seeing me on foot.
u The wild scenery of these mountains," I answered,
" was one great inducement, and to shorten my route,
another." "And wouldn't ye get up, and let me give
ye a lift of a couple of miles ?" I looked at the lively
steed, the sprightliness of the young man, and had [
been in my teens, might have been strongly prompted
to accept the offer. But as my appearance to the com-
plaisant gallant was nothing favorable, I declined, and
he walked his horse to keep me company, giving me in-
telligent answers to my inquiries of the state of the
country, presenting the same dark picture of irs hapless
condition as others had done, till a different road turn-
ed him away ; and when I saw the grey courser gallop-
ping off, and heard the last sound of his hoofs upon the
path, I paused — all was solitude.

The sun had sunk behind a black mountain, twilight
was letting down her soft curtain upon the heathy
landscape, and not the buzz of an insect fell upon my
ear. Not the smoke of a cabin curlsd in the air, and
neither man nor beast met my admiring eye. Nature
seemed here to say, " Walk softly, and let me enjoy
my solitude alone." From a far distant mountain, a
mournful sound fell on my ear. It was the wail for
the dead. It swelled in heavy tones, and then died
away, as they who chanted it descended a valley ; thus
alternately rising and falling, for five long miles, did

CHAP, xxi.j CO. OF KERRY. 351

this lamentation float on the air. The solitude, the
lateness of the hour, my distance from the land of my
fathers, among so primitive a people, whose bible cus-
toms have been retained since the mourning for Jacob
in the " threshing floor of Atad," made this lamenta-
tion a pleasant mournful accompaniment over the bar-
ren waste I was walking. The rustics afterwards told
me it was a lone old woman who had died in her cabin
on the mountain, and she must be brought " to lie with
her kin in the valley."

The shadows of the night were now heavy on the out-
stretched bog before me ; a woman and young lad came
out of a cabin, and the youth said, " This is a lonely
road for a lady to walk, and where can ye be goin'?"
" To Maurice Raheley's." — " Maurice Raheley's ! and
the night is now nearly on ye, and ye've a long two
miles under yer fut ; we'll be on the way a half mile
on." They gave me directions in the kindest manner,
and turned away. The night " was on me ;" the road
long and dreary, was before me, covered with coarse
gravel, without the smoke of a cabin or the sight of a
sheep, cow, or ass, to tell me that I was not alone in
the world. The stillness of death reigned ; for in Ire-
land the night knows not the howl of the beast of prey,
and it was not the season for the chirping cricket ;
and not a sound for more than a weary mile once broke
upon my ear. The barking of a dog from a far distant
mountain, suddenly told me that I was in the precincts
of man's abode. u Welcome, dog," I said j " how-
ever coarse and ugly you may be, you have the voice
of a dog, and could I reach you, I would pat you on
the head, I would give you a piece of bread from my
bag;" but, alas! I had but a scanty crust. The Irish
peasant dogs, like their masters, are patient and
kind ; many a one has met me at the door of a
cabin, and instead of barking as a surly dog would,
by the wagging of his tail and inviting look of the
eye, said, u Walk in, walk in, stranger; my mas-
ter will make ye welcome to our fire and our po-
tato."

352 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxi.

If ever a being wanted to see Maurice Raheley, J was
that being. At last I descried a human form approach-
ing. "God save ye kindly, lady; and what misfortune
has brought ye among these lone mountains to-night ?
I'm sorry for ye ; for, if I can see rightly, ye're no com-
mon body. And where's the comrade that should be
wid ye ?" Telling him who I was, and what was my
object, he added, u And ye'll soon be at Maurice Ra-
heley's lodgin', God speed ye." I hurried on with fresh
vigor, and at last, on a hill, the slated roof of the long
desired dwelling appeared. Meeting a man a few paces
from the door, I said, " Is this the lodging-house, sir ?"
" This is no lodging-house ; but he'll keep ye, as ye're
alone and a stranger." My heart, which had been
beating high with expectation, began to flag a little ;
but wading through the usual preface to almost every
cabin in Ireland (a manure heap), I met at the crossing
of the threshold, cows, calves, sheep, and lambs, occu-
pying half of the room, which was made up with a host
of children, and I asked, u Are these all your family,
madam ?"

" Some of them are man-sarvants and maid-sarvants,
ma'am," was the reply.

" Do you take lodgers here ?" " We don't, ma'am. "

." But why have I been told this by so many on whom
I have inquired?"

" I know not, unless to lead you astray, ma'am."

" And what am I to do ? There is no house where I
can go."

" We'll not send you out to-night, as ye're a stran-
ger."

Soon I heard the sound of a pot behind me ; the
good housewife was pouring in potatoes. " And they 're
for you, ma'am," said the old grandfather. A bowl of
milk, saucer of butter, and cup of salt, were soon be-
fore me, by the side of a bountiful plate of potatoes ;
and while I was taking, with a high relish, my potatoes
and salt alone, a son of the family read aloud a tract
which I gave him.

In the midst of this stable the mother brought out
two clean linen sheets, and aired them, lit up a fire,

CHAP, xxi.] CO. OP KERRY. 353

and soon I was invited " down'' through the lodging-
place of the cattle, into a bed-room without a floor,
with a proud pile of more than fifty bushels of potatoes,
fresh from the pit, which the mother said was but a
bit for all the family. The smell of these, with that
issuing from under the door where the cattle lay, and
the smoke from the newly made turf fire, made my con-
dition not only unpleasant, but so suffocating, that I
feared at times serious results. Glad was I when the
faithful cock in the next room announced the day. I
arose, and asking for my bill, was answered, u Nothing."
I gave him the usual price, an English sixpence, and
went out.

The morning was beautiful, the light and shade upon
the picturesque mountain which I must cross were of a
new and varied kind. To give an idea of them I can
only say, cross the Kerry mountains in a clear morning
before sunrise, and if there is a soul within you capable
of being roused, that soul will be stirred. I soon found
myself in something like a vast amphitheatre, with
mountains piled on mountains, " Alps on Alps ;" cov-
ered with heath, without a tree, the sun-rays streaming
athwart from behind me to the top of the mountains be-
fore, leaving me in a dusky pleasant solitude which was
entirely new. I walked two miles, and passed one
cabin by the road-side, and a few scattered ones at a
distance upon the sloping hill. The enchantment in-
creased, and the breezes of heaven that morning wafted
a new and exhilarating fragrance. 1 sat down to enjoy
it upon a moss-hillock, and commenced singing, for the
Kerry mountains are the best conductors of sound of
any I have ever met ; they in some places not only give
echoes, but thrills as the ever-busy wind penetrates the
circles and caves. I had sung but a passage, when, from
over a wide stretched valley, a mountain boy, with a
herd of cattle, struck up a lively piper's song, so clear
and shrill that I gladly exchanged my psalmody for
morning notes like these. It was to me a hymn of
praise ; it said that God had compensated in part for

354 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxi.

all the deficiencies of food, raiment, society, &c., by
the almost holy inspiration of the mountain air, which,
in spite of all painful drawbacks, will impart a spon-
taneous cheerfulness, keeping pure that life-blood
which spreads vigor and health unsought by medicine.
I listened till a pause ensued, and again commenced ;
instantly he responded, and though the distance was
a mile at least, yet alternately we kept up the song
till his was lost in the distance. Seeing a sparkling
rivulet leaping down the mountain before me, 1 ascend-
ed to its side, stopped, uncovered my head and hands,
laved and revelled in almost unearthly delights. Tho
wide circular valley at my feet, the Kerry mountains,
with their blossoming heath and playful streams, were
made on purpose for me, surely, that morning, for they
were just to my liking ; and the sun and heavens, too,
shed a light which said, " Look ! for you never again
will see this same morning on this same Kerry moun-
tain."

A little girl, at a distance upon a rock, was gazing
in astonishment, wondering at seeing a moving being
with a bonnet upon her head on this mountain. Still
further on had a man ascended the point of a hill, and
stood in silence. A pony slowly approached, looked,
and turned away. There was not a cabin in sight,
nor the smoke of one ; but somewhere lived men, wo-
men, and children in these defiles. The road was a
new one, lately cut through this mountain ; no carriage
had passed it, and mine was certainly the first Ameri-
can foot that had ever trod this bold, defying height ;
and in my pride I looked down upon cities, with all
their little fripperies, with a kind of contempt. Ah,
who would have your smoke, your bricks, and your
marbles, huddled into confirmed streets and stenchy
alleys, when the unadulterated air of heaven might be
yours, where God has thrown together, in awful
grandeur, piles on piles, and scattered the rising
springs, and sent down the laughing rivulet, and
wound the serpentine brook and river in every varied
profusion ? Romantic as I was, the spot was more so ;

CHAP, xxi.] CO. OF KERRY. 355

and as I sat upon a rock, eating a deliciously sweet and
dry crust, with my bonnet and parasol by my side on
this fairy spot, had youth and beauty been mine, the
pencil of a tourist might have made out a mountain
landscape of no small interest.

I must proceed ; the crust was finished, the mountain
top ascended. I looked back, and could my voice
have reached across the Atlantic, I would have shouted
to them, " Come and see my enviable site." I was not
willing to turn away from this enchanting eminence, but
through the cleft upon the other side, scenes as beauti-
ful caught my eyes. A wide extent of valley was
spread out, interspersed with bog, heath, and grass,
with the prepared ridge for the potatoe ; far beyond
were mountains, grand and high, lifting their proud
summits ; now and then a pleasant little lake was
sparkling in the sun-beam. The smoke of cabins, and
large flocks of noble-looking sheep, were scattered here
and there. Some straggling children among the rocks
saw me, and looking up, paused a moment, ran toward
a cabin, and climbed upon a pile of stones. I shouted
and shouted to them, but could get no answer, they
seemed rivited to the spot, unlike all upon these moun-
tains, who at first sight would generally run at full
speed, sometimes screeching with fear, then ascend
some eminence, and when I had well passed, burst out
into a wild boisterous laugh, saying in effect,
" She's gone, she's gone, and the danger is over." It
was only in the wildest mountains that the children
were timid, and this I was informed was occasioned by
never having seen a woman with a bonnet upon her
head ; they supposed the bonnet was a part of the
strange being.

As 1 descended the hill upon the other side, new
scenes awaited me. The treat 1 had just been enjoy-
ing was too rich for constant food. The road now be-
came almost intolerable, gravel stones had been flung
on for ten miles, or more, without being trodden down ;
my feet soon were blistered, and walking was grievous.
Bridges over small streams were not made, and I

356 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxi.

must cross upon slippery stones, or wade. I cannot
speak ill of the roads of Ireland, for in most parts they
are not only good, but faultless, and this would fre-
quently have induced me to walk, had I no other cause.
Often, when my indignation against the rags of Ireland
would swell across the channel to the house of parlia-
ment, " Ah, but see what beautifully enticing roads
have they made, for the bare feet of the beggars to
walk," would be the soothing reply. But the road I
was on had not been finished for the traveller. Never
before could I realize the import of doing penance by
walking with pebbles in the shoes ; the tops of my
boots were loose, and every few moments I must stop,
and pour out the gravel-stones collected in them. Be-
sides, I had turned from the route intended in the
morning, which was to Killorglin, for the purpose of
going through the Gap of Dunloe, and was told when
it was too late that it would lengthen my route six
miles.

Night was coming on, and a lodging-house was the
thing really needed. One was pointed to me, which
when reached was nothing but a stable, and used for
cattle as well as people. They answered, " Never mind
him, we don't take lodgers." Hobbling along, I be-
came an object of great wonder. The country was now
thickly sprinkled with cabins, and all the moving beings
which they contained turned out, to salute, to gape, or
to follow me. My suffering became so acute, that I felt
like fainting ; and stepping to a door, I asked if
lodgings could be found in the vicinity. " Not any
this side of Killarney," was the answer. " I cannot
reach it then, and must stop by the way-side." I had
walked more than twenty miles, ten of which had been
on round or sharp pebbles for a carpet ; sometimes
getting upon a cart, and carrying my boots in my hand
for a little mitigation. I had eaten nothing but the
happy dry crust on the enchanted morning, and the ag-
gregate was a considerable burden to think of support-
ing four miles longer. The bare-footed woman of
whom I inquired, said, " If I had a bed, you should

CHAP. XXL] CO. OF KERRY. 357

not go any further; but come in, and sit down, and rest
ye a bit." This I did not refuse, and followed her into
the lodge, sat down upon a bench, and there remained.
She kindly offered to do the best she could, which was
to put some straw upon the floor, and place me on it.
This was a rich prospect. The potatoes were in readi-
ness, and when engaged in eating them, the husband
entered, intoxicated, wild, and noisy. Never were a
morning and evening at greater extremes than this, in
my state of feeling.

I could not get away : the scene was terrific. Three
men entered, two to drink with the master, and the
third, a tetotaler, to keep the whole sober. Till one
o'clock they stayed, sending out a girl for fresh sup-
plies, and no entreaties could get the man of the house
to bed. I begged the sober man to find me some re-
treat, but he could not, and at two they all departed,
leaving three females to contend as we could with the
infuriate wretch, who had undressed himself and pro-
mised to lie down, before the sober man left him. As
soon as the men had passed the gate, he seized the
tongs, grasped the throat of his wife, and told me if I
spoke or attempted to stir, he would throw me into the
river, which was deep, and passing under the window of
the lodge. The affrighted woman struggled and
screamed, and I succeeded by stealth in getting the
tongs, and carrying them out, together with the spade.
It rained, and I stopped out, till the violence within
was so frightful that I feared murder would be the re-
sult, and ventured in. A cairn followed, and he ap-
proached the bed of his three affrighted children, bade
them a long farewell, and went out into the rain, after
putting on his clothes.

The straw was spread upon the floor for my bed,
and without any covering I placed myself on it. The
cock at the door soon told me it was day, and though
the rain was still pouring I said good morning to the
suffering woman, and went out. My feet were so
blistered, the road was so clayey, and the rain poured

358 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxi.

so profusely, that the four miles to Killarney were long
and sad ones.

Everything was done by the good Mrs. C. at the
lodging-house, to make me forget the sorrows of the
last twenty-four hours ; and a Sabbath of quiet so re-
freshed me, that on Monday I ventured upon new
perils. I had found in all my tedious walks that a
night's rest restored me to vigor, so that I was prepared
for a fresh undertaking every morning, even when chairs,
or a pile of straw might be the bed. Not so with a ride
upon a coach. It was almost impossible to secure a
seat ; and when, by the crowding and jolting of a day's
jaunt, I became fatigued, this fatigue made a visit
often of many days.

The gap of Dunloe has had so many visitors and so
many historians — has given so many echoes, and paid so
many guides — that what remains for me is to say that
I walked five miles to reach it, and found an old man
at the entrance, busied in his field, who insisted on
leaving all to accompany me. I told him I preferred
the walk alone, that a guide would confuse me. They
always hurried on, disgusting me with all sorts of fairy
stories, diverting my mind from everything useful, and
leaving it in a labyrinth more bewildering than the
voice of nature with the eyes for handmaids. "But
ye're a stranger, and I would take no pay ; ye cannot
go alone, "&c. I escaped, and entered the wonders. The
little lake, the craggy mountain on the right, and the
purple one on the left, first opened to view ; the rich-
ness and beauty of the latter scarcely can have a rival,
and most of the peaks on both sides are enveloped in
clouds,

" And raid-way leave the storm."

A rugged foot-path led me on till I reached a cabin,
and a young man was ready as a guide. I told him I
could make no possible use of one. " But he can show
you the shortest route." This was true Kerry cun-
ning ; I answered him that it was impossible to stray
from the path, as there was but one, and that could

CHAP. XXL] CO. OF KERRY. 359

not be left without climbing precipitous rocks. He
turned away, and in an undertone said, u Ah, she un-
derstands." Passing out, I met two gentlemen with a
guide, who had half an hour before burst a good rifle
when making echoes. When they had passed, I sat
down upon a rock, to make echoes for myself by sing-
ing a hymn, and these two gentlemen concealed them-
selves to listen, returned to Killarney, and reported that
they had enjoyed the sweetest echoes imaginable in the
gap, from a crazy woman, who passed them alone, and
sung two sweet hymns, while they were secluded within
hearing. The novelty of seeing a woman without a
guide led them to suppose 1 must be crazy. I soon met
another, then three more, all insisting that I must have
a guide ; and in no way could I escape but by insisting
that I should not accept of one.

At last this pile of rocks on rocks, mountains on
mountains, was passed, and I stood upon the top, look-
ing upon the other side, where the mountain scenery,
like all other Kerry beauties and sublimities, must be
seen to be understood. I had read something of them
before seeing them, but had no just conception of the
reality. Enjoying the treat in silent admiration, I
heard the sound of footsteps, and looking about, was
saluted, " Sure you're a wonderful wawker ; I have fol-
lowed ye a mile and a-half through the Gap, and
couldn't overtake ye. And why should ye be alone ?
Sure the like of ye never was known ; an', where may
ye be from ?" " From New Fork." " From New
Yawrk ! an' what's the raison that ye're here alone ?
and have ye no comrade ?" " Not a comrade in the
world, sir, nor kindred who cares for me." u An' ye're
come to this poor country ! An' ye must have a dale
of money." Had I been afraid of robbery, I should
have shown him my purse ; but looking at him as a
whole, I feared no evil. He was old, carrying a staff
from necessity, and so dirtily dressed, that if he had no
living things about him, it must be because they had
left to find a richer, cleaner pasture. The path wound
around the mountain to a deep valley at the head of

360 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxi.

the lake, and through what was once the tasteful do-
main of Lord Brandon, now grown over with weeds
and thistles, and looking more suitable for the abode
of the screeching owl and dancing satyr than the
pleasure-grounds of a lord. A slovenly farmer had
rented it, and left everywhere the impress of sloth
and bad taste. His wife, when we entered the cot-
tage, was sitting upon her haunches on a settee, with
her heels drawn under her, in the commendable occu-
pation of knitting. Her children and domicile appeared
as if " the virtuous woman, who looketh well to the
ways of her household," had not passed that way. The
tower and garden, like Solomon's field of the slothful,
were grown over with nettles, and the stone wall
thereof was broken down. And had the surly owner,
who once expended thirty thousand pounds to make
this a spot of proud wonder to strangers, been allowed
again to walk over these grounds, if his penurious heart
still retains any earthly relish, he would have dealt
out anathemas against the miscreants, who had so effec-
tually defaced all that was once beautiful in the eye of
the visitor.

I bade good evening to the housewife, who never left
her post, and the bold officious guide followed me out
to ask a penny for tobacco. So annoyed had I been
with his company, that I begged him to return when
on the mountain ; he would not, and I resolved that
I would furnish him no means for smoking, as a com-
pensation for such intrusion. I now hoped that I might
be suffered to make my way alone, to what place I
knew not, for here the road terminated. Hyde Park
cottage was what, when I left Killarney, I hoped to
see, but at this place was told that it now existed only
in name. All I could do was to go on, and make a path
for myself through mire and bog, till I plunged into
a thick wood. It was sun-set, and began to rain. To
go back through the gap was impossible ; and before
me was a dark wood, without a path, and full of
pits of water. I looked about for some rock under
which I could creep and stop for the night ; a

CHAP. xxi. j CO. OF KERRY. 361

comfortable one soon met my sight. To stay under
the rock would ensure me a shelter, no venomous ser-
pent was there, rain could not reach me, and I felt not
the least timidity. Had a father or brother been with
me, and 1 had looked to him for protection, I should
have felt some repugnance ; but the Protector, who
was constantly about my path, I knew never u slumbers
or sleeps," and feeling not th^ least hesitation, I was
about stooping to make my ingress ; but when I heard
the barking of a dog, and the sound of an axe, I
demurred.

The rain would make the difficulty of getting through
the swamp greater, and I waded on. A cottage ap-
peared, but they did not take lodgers. This was the
thir'd night in four that 1 had been deceived in respect
to lodging-houses, and began seriously to think that
Kerry archness had been gratifying its cunning on me.
The astonished family could give me no " tay, nor no
bread, but," said the master, u the night and the rain
are heavy on ye, and the walk is seven long miles to
Killarney ; ye would be destroyed, an' we'll give ye a
bed." The cottage had a stone floor ; a bright wood
fire was blazing, the floor and hearth were nicely
swept, and no astral lamp shone brighter than did
that pleasant fire. The sweet days of childhood, when
the green mountains and valleys of Vermont were my
home, when brothers and sisters had assembled around
the glad fireside, rose in review.

" I thought of the days of other years, and my soul was sad."

Never in Ireland had an evening of such welcome
sadness been mine. A pot of black minion potatoes
were prepared for me, while the family waited to boil
those of an inferior quality for themselves. This was
genuine cabin hospitality. They had a few choice po-
tatoes reserved for planting, and some of these must
be provided, because the stranger must not have an
inferior article. We talked of Dunloe, of Killarney,
and of Hyde Park, the owners of which had all gone
clown to the dust. " But," said the man, " had you seen
16

CO. OP KERRY. [CHAP. xXr.

the rector of Hyde Park, he was the one that the peo-
ple loved ; he was so kind to the poor and sick, not a
hap'orth of a cabin in all the parish but his fut was in ;
and though he was a Protestant, yet he sarved the
Catholics with as many a good turn as he did his own ;
and when he died, wasn't there the lamentation ! His
people, ye must know, won't have the Irish cry when
their dead is buried, but not a dry cheek was there
that day ; and when they brought out the body for the
hairse, not a hap'orth of the Catholics would let 'em do
it, but said they would carry it on their shoulders, and
so they did. Aw, the like o'him warn't in all the
country."

A chaff bed with clean sheets was placed upon
chairs by that pleasant fire, and an invigorating sleep
prepared me for a fresh walk in the morning. I suc-
ceeded in leaving a few pennies when I went away, but
regretted that I did, for the woman accompanied me
out, saying, u An' sure d'ye think we've no heart for
the stranger ? An' wouldn't ye do the like for me in
yer country?" She conducted me into a wood, where
a beautiful cascade foaming down a precipice met my
eye.

My seven miles' morning walk was but just com-
menced, when a rosy faced girl of fourteen, with her
apron across her arm, containing a few groceries, salut-
ed me. a Good morrow kindly, ma'am, and ye've not
been to Dinis Island ; it's but a mile down the walk
under yer fut, and the road to Killarney is a long five
miles. Will ye turn in, and I will show ye the
cottage?" I had met this pretty Kerry girl before,
near the same place, who had urged me to see this
island, and her sweet face and kind manner now pre-
vailed. She had walked nine miles that morning, and
her pretty foot was not soiled, nor, as she told me, was
her leg weary, though she was much concerned for
mine. A winding path through a beautiful wood took
us to Dinis cottage, where the family were breakfast-
ing on bread and tea — the bread of the woman's own
making, which was not only a rarity, but a delicious

CHAP, xxi.] CO. OF KERRY. 363

treat. They had lived sometime in North America,
consequently treated me kindly. The children had
clean faces, well-combed hair, tidy apparel, and the cot-
tage bore the marks of the industrious house-keeper.
They were Protestants. The mother was teaching her
children, as they had no school on the island. But sorry
am I to say, that in no family had I heard so much pro-
fanity, both from mother and children. I would not ex-
pose it ; but no one could stay in the house many hours
and not hear itr and such sins should be rebuked before
all.

A day and night passed here gave me a good ac-
quaintance with the scenery of these lakes, which con-
vinced me that, to admire Killarney beauties, they must
not too hastily be hurried over. The little bare-footed girl
was always with me when she could get an opportunity,
and had been quite a guide to strangers on that island,
and was very intelligent. But Killarney and its beau-
ties must be left, and I bade Dinis Island a long adieu;
I returned, and prepared for leaving Killarney, and
have much kindness to record, as exercised towards me
in the inn where I lodged, by mother and daughters.
They were well paid for what they did, but it was done
with so becoming a grace and such good will, that it
made me feel an obligation which is a privilege to ac-
knowledge. When 1 was out all night at Hyde Park,
they, knowing what the walk must be even with compa-
ny, were much concerned ; and when night came on,
sent about the town to make inquiries. Had I been a
member of the family, they could not have done more.
The gentlemen's telling them they had met a " crazy
woman " in the gap, was all the information they could
get of me until the next day.

364 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxn.

CHAPTER XXIt.

Tralee— Public-house honesty— A "Gentlem?n"— Mr. Walpole's Honorable
Dealings — Christianity at Dingle — "They always Stand'' — One Bright Spot —
The Converts — Education of the Lower Order — Nancy Brown's Parlor — Co-
quetry and Gallantry — Peasant Girl's Poetry — Learned Priest — Sybil Head —
" Look ! Look !"— Fearless Children— Disappointment and Vexation— Candid
Hotel-keeper — Banks of the Shannon.'

Thursday, at four o'clock, I took the car for Tralee.
The ride was through a somewhat dreary part of the
country, with little that was interesting ; but the adven-
tures at Tralee were comical, if not tragical.

Arriving at the town, a bevy of applicants from
Walpole's hotel poured upon me, to take me to his
inn, and to Dingle on his car the next day. I told them
1 did not choose an inn, but private lodgings. This
did not shake them off, till, jumping from the car, I
begged some one to show me suitable lodgings. One
was pointed out to me across the way ; I escaped into
the house, and the troop in pursuit. I had but just
seated myself in a chamber, when a civil young man
stepped after me, and inquired if I wished a conveyance
to Dingle. Saying that 1 did, he then said, l-i To-mor-
row at eleven 1 will give you a seat on my car for three
shillings." The distance to Dingle was little more than
thirty miles. 1 made the engagement, gave him my lug-
gage, and as he passed out he said, u You won't disap-
point me, 1 hope." " Certainly not," was the answer.
When he had gone, I found that his was an opposition
car, that Mr. Walpole had occupied the. road for years,
had made money by it, and charged more for the fare.
More of this to-morrow.

The house I was in was a whiskey den, and
leaving my gloves and pocket-handkerchief upon
a table in my room, 1 stepped down, and told

CHAP. XXH.J CO. OF KERRY. 365

the woman who was selling the baneful commo-
dity that though I had asked for lodgings in her
house, yet I could not stay to leave one shilling in a
place devoted to such evil work, and begged her to
think seriously of the degrading wicked business she
was in, and abandon it for one .that was more honest.
She was angry, and talked as a woman would talk in
such an employment ; and while I was standing there,
my gloves and handkerchief were taken. I mentioned
it to the woman, who refused making inquiry. I told
her this was proof positive of what had so offended her,
that the employment was dishonest, and those who were
engaged in it were not to be trusted in matters where
self-interest was concerned.

The young man was at the door with whom I was
to go to Dingle, and went with me to another lodging
house, where, though no whiskey was sold, yet the sad
effects were manifested about three o'clock in the
morning, by a loud thundering at the door, demanding
entrance in a most outrageous manner. The good
woman arose, put her head out of the window,
and inquired who was there, and what was wanting.
"A gentleman was there, and wanted his hat," was
the answer, and that he would have, if not peaceably,
by violence. The mistress told him his hat was not
there ; he told her it was* She answered that he had
not been in the house, but he assured her he would be
in, and commenced another battering with fists and
boots, till the distracted woman in self-defence went
down and opened the door. The ' l gentleman " searched
for his hat, but no hat was there, and he walked quietly
away.

I passed a miserable night, took a miserable
breakfast in a miserably dirty room, and went out.
Before eleven, which was the carman's appointed
hour, I returned to my lodgings to be in readiness,
when two young lads entered, asking if I had any
trunks, and said the car was ready. 1 told them my
luggage was in the care of the carman, and he had
said he should go at eleven, and it was not the hour.
" The car is ready, and you must hurry to the post

366 CO. OF KERRY. ; [CHAP. xxn.

office and pay fare." I did so, and as I handed the
money into the hand of the clerk, the man who had
engaged to take me to Dingle, stepped near, and said,
" You have paid into the wrong office." The fraud
was evident. They had watched where I changed my
lodgings, when I left the night preceding, and had sent
these lads to secure my money before the time that I
was to go out. I turned to the clerk, telling him I
had been deceived, had made a previous engagement
with the young man, and he now had my luggage.
He refused, declaring he would pay no money back,
that the car was ready, I might take it or leave it at my
option ; my money was in his hands, and there it should
be, but he would condescend to take me to Dingle for
the three shillings. A crowd assembled. A policeman
said, " We can do nothing for you, but you should con-
sult , Esq." He was a peace-maker in the town,

and would persuade Walpole to do right.

The peace-maker appeared ; the portly Mr. Walpole

appeared also. " What do you want, , Esq. r"

" To inquire into the affair concerning this stranger."
" There is a car ready, she has paid her money to me,
and she may go or stay ; her money she shall not have."
I pleaded a stranger's claim, a female and unprotected.
I appealed to an Irishman's honor to an American, on
whose shores so many of his countrymen had found a
welcome home. He sullenly refused ; the magistrate
told him it was kidnapping, and begged him to return
the money. The great and the small were there, and
the good feeling of the police, and indeed all but
the man himself, deserve my acknowledgment. One
whispered in my ear, "He is not an Irishman, but
a Scotch Presbyterian." I turned to Walpole, and told
him I was happy to learn that he was not an Irishman,
and now better understood my true condition. The
young man generously offered to give me my baggage,
or carry me for nothing, as I had once paid. 1 told
him 1 would not ride with a man who would defraud
a stranger, neither would I take his car without pay-

CHAP, xxn.j CO. OF KERRY. 367

ing, but would walk to Dingle it' he would carry my
luggage. I went on, the policeman begging ine to
ride, and the poor following and saying, " Ye'd be de-
stroyed, and he's a rich old blackguard. The young
man that has the car is as fine a lad as ye'd find in the
country." One poor woman, with an infant in her
arms, went out of town more than a mile, barefooted
and bareheaded, though the sun was scorching ; nor
could I prevail on her to return. u YeVe a lone stranger,
and that blackguard of a Scotchman to trate ye so."
When she saw me well out of town, she returned, and
I walked eight miles in torment with blistered feet,
which had not been healed since my Killarney expedi-
tion. The carman then overtook me, with five on his
car, and prevailed on me to be the sixth. We arrived
at Dingle at nine o'clock, and I stayed at the house of
his sister where he lodged, and found the same accom-
modations, the same food, and the same kindness as in
all houses among the poor.

In the morning I arose in the celebrated town of
Dingle, a " city on a hill." Distant as it is from all
the world beside, yet it has for the last few years said
to all who would hear, " Turn aside, and look at me."
Its bay is full of interest, and its people more so ; and
as the people were my object, I must talk of them. A
Catholic woman of much good nature and some intelli-
gence called early, and offered to accompany me to see
the town. Her first depot unasked was to the house
of a priest ; considerable time was taken to get an
introduction to his presence, and when we did, his
every look and taciturnity seemed to say, " what
brought you here r" He was the first I had met who
showed reserve, but Dingle had been struggling with
party creeds, and as the "soupers," as the Protestant
converts are called, were getting quite numerous, the
priest had all his sensibilities awake to keep the prowler
from making further inroads into his fold. A new
comer from a foreign country might be the very uwolf
in sheep's clothing" to beguile more of the faithful,

368 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP.XJUI.

and, as I was afterwards informed, he therefore kept
more caution. So I was sent empty away.

Having an invitation from the wife of a Protestant
clergyman, sent by the gardener, I made my way
up the hill, in company with a tidy looking Catholic
girl to lead me to the door. Supposing myself invited,
I made no hesitation in saying to the servant (who
was a long time answering the knock), that I was the
person Mrs. G. had invited, giving my name. Mrs.
G. was engaged. "Will you give my name?" I
asked. " She is very busy." What could this trifling
metin ? Had the gardener deceived me ? Is this the
house of a missionary ? When will the nonsense of a
silly world lose its hold of the professed Christian
church ? I went away disgusted, and was descending
the hill when a message was sent, " Will you come
back?" I answered, it was of no consequence. " The
mistress sent me to ask you." I returned, met the
lady in the hall, to whom I said, " Is this Mrs. G.,
and was a message sent to me by the gardener r"
" Walk in," was the answer. "It is of no conse-
quence," I said. " Walk in." I followed into the
parlor, and was immediately asked my message to Ire-
land. It was told, and likewise that I had called on
the Catholic priest. Surprised, she suddenly answered,
" And what did you call on him for ? I will never
go near any of them. They are a persecuting people."
" I thought they weie the subjects we were to strive to
benefit, arid how can we do them good by keeping
aloof:" " When they come to us, we always receive
them kindly, but we do not proselyte. Though we are
accused of going after them, we do not ; neither do we
bribe them, as it is said of us, by feeding them and
promising high wages. There is a man," pointing to
one in the field, " who works faithfully here through the
week for eight-pence a day. Do you call that bribing
him? He is glad to huve it." " I call that oppres-
sion," was my answer. u Well, he is glad to do it."
Again she interrogated, " Do you make a practice

CHAP, xxii.] CO. OF KERRY. 369

of going among the Catholics?" " I mak^ a practice
of going among all the poor without distinction, but
am sorry to say that ' my own' often reject me, and I
should more than once have been without a shelter, if
the Catholics had not received me, when the Protes-
tants would not."

I gained but little information, though the missionary
himself and his friend Mr. C. were present ; the latter
I had been told was a spiritual Christian, and I hoped
from him to learn the true state of things. They all
acted as if dinner were cooling, and the sooner this
Jesuitical spy shall have done the better. The poor
woman who had accompanied me stood in the hall during
the hour that I stopped, and I begged the mistress to
give her a seat or send her away. u No matter, they
always stand, "was the answer.

I went away without declining dinner, for no invita-
tion was given; and will not be so independent as to
say that I was not disappointed. I was grieved ; not
for the personal treatment, but grieved that so noble,
so apostolic a work was in the hands of those whose hos-
pitality, whose humility, whose courteousness to
strangers, and whose self-denial, were so far behind the
'principles they professed to inculcate. I went to the
house with no prejudice, hoping to hear a true state-
ment of the good work going on ; and the poor waiting
Catholic woman, who was not a " souper," was telling
me on the way that she knew I should be treated kind-
ly, and when we turned from the door, she said, " I was
sorry she kept ye so long, and didn't ask ye to take a
comfortable bit."

My acquaintance in life had ever been much among
the clergy, and though I had long since known they
were not exempt from the frailties of human nature,
and that Christ's example was always the safest to fol-
low, yet I had never seen them so little given to hospi-
tality, so uncourteous to strangers, and so outwardly
conformed to the maxims of the world, as some I had
met in Ireland ; and yet I heard many edifying sermons
from them.

16*

370 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP.XXII.

My prospects brightened a little when I was in the
evening introduced into a Methodist family. Every
Christian kindness was here shown that could be, and
I was conducted to a comfortable room, and told by
the u prudent wife" that here was the Christian pil-
grim's room, always kept to entertain strangers.
" Here," she added, " you may find a welcome home
while in Dingle." Her husband was a coast-guard, a
noble Irishman of whom his country might be proud
Three daughters and a son composed this happy
family. It was a family well ordered, and one of
happy Christian love. Here I stayed, and here I loved
to stay ; hero the morning and evening prayer ascended
from hearts kindled by Christian union. Sabbath
morning I walked two miles to a poor dwelling, in
company with Mrs. J. and her daughter, to meet with
an humble few in a little class meeting, and to hear
from these poor cabiners, in this remote part of the
earth, that same dialect which is spoken wherever the
story of Calvary has been told. It was pleasant, it
was good to be there. How many times in Ireland
have I blessed God that he sent the ever-stirring,
warm-hearted Methodists into that island. Their zeal
has a redeeming quality in it that few others manifest ;
it never goes out ; the bush, though burning, is never
consumed.

Attended church and met tli2 converts, and whether
they had changed the Latin version for the English,
in changing their prayer books, and knew not the
difference, I know not, but only a few among them
could read. I visited the converts, and talked with
them on their great change, and found them as I found
their Papist neighbors, in all respects but one. They
invariably answered me, when I inquired concerning
the great change that had taken place in their minds,
" We do not worship images." But what the new
birth implied, or any work of conviction and operation
of the Holy Spirit on their hearts, they could tell
nothing;, for they seemed to know nothing. But here
1 would be understood. I did not talk with all the

CHAP, xxii ] CO. OF KERRY. 371

converts of Dingle, and would not presume to say but
that God has done a great work there ; if he has, man
cannot overthrow it ; if he has not, man cannot support
even what they seem to have. But this is certain,
that they have the unadulterated Word of God^ and if
they cannot read it, they hear it, and some seeci may be
sown on good ground, and bear fruit. I visited the
Protestant and national schools in Dingle ; the infant
school was under good regulations ; the national school
in so boisterous a state, that, with knocking and calling,
we could not be heard, and were obliged to go aloft
into the second room, and there things seemed but a
little improved. We had some specimens of grammar
and geography from the noisy urchins, which would
puzzle the most learned of any language to define, and
we went out with a rabble of boys in pursuit, calling
out, "American! American!" till we reached our
homes.

Our next excursion was to Ventry. Here is a colony
of the new converts, with a clergyman at their head,
who was once a Catholic priest. A pretty little vil-
lage, and everything about it more inviting than other-
wise. WTe visited the Protestant school, and here found
a young lady teaching a class of promising young
misses ; but when we inquired if they were studying
geography, as wo saw maps hanging in the lower end of
the room, the answer surprised iny Protestant friend,

Mrs. J . " The maps are for the boys ; these

are the daughters of the lower order, and we do not
advance them." "But have they not talents to be cul-
tivated ? and is not this a professedly Christian school,
instituted by missionaries r" " It is," she answered ;
"but I must do as I am bidden. They are poor, and
must be educated according to their station." Again I
enforced the obligation imposed on us by Christ, to
" occupy till he come." She did not understand me;
and though she belonged to the Protestant Church, I
could not see that her dark understanding had ever
been enlightened by the Spirit of God, or that she was
any more capable of teaching spiritual things than the

372 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxn.

Catholics about her whom she viewed as being so dark.
We visited a few converts in the cabins, and I was
afterwards cautioned not to go there again, as the cler-
gymen had given them notice that they must not receive
me into their houses.*

The next day we visited a school of the nuns. Here
were more than three hundred of the poor, taught in
the most thorough manner. Their lessons in grammar,
geography, and history, would do honor to any school,
and their needlework was of the highest order. The
teacher observed, " Though they are the children of the
poor, we do not know what station God may call them
to fill. We advance them as far as possible while they
are with us. The Protestants," she added, " do not
teach the poor anything but reading, writing, and arith-
metic."

" What a rebuke," said my friend, " is this on the
practice of Bible Christians ! Here is a nun spending
her whole life in teaching the poor, without any com-
pensation, and saying, i We don't know what station
God may want them to fill, and we advance them as
far as we can." Three nuns were giving their whole
time in this school.

The bay and mountains about Dingle are objects of
considerable interest. Connor Hill, upon which a road
is made through a rock which hangs frightfully over
the head of the traveller, and the steep descent to a
lake, are grand objects. The government has certainly
given incontestible proof that rocks, mountains, and
water are no effectual impediments to making good
roads in Ireland. Why can it not surmount the rocky
difficulties of the people, cut them through, give them
a tolerable place among the children of men, and en-
able them to walk forth over these roads, not as beasts of
burden, clothed in rags, but like men made in God's

* This did not offend me, neither do I blame him. I mention it
only as one manifestation of the watchful jealousy maintained by
different parties to keep both their creed and character from conta-
mination.

CHAP, xxii.] CO. OF KERRY. 373

image, enjoying the blessings which are made for all,
and should be possessed by all ?

We attempted to ascend Connor Hill by a circular
route, but the higher we ascended the more the distance
seemed to increase, and we sat down under a passing
cloud, which so enveloped us, that, though in the morn-
ing, it appeared quite like gathering evening, and the
cold was very severe. I was glad to get away, for a pres-
sure upon the chest made me feel a difficulty in breathing.
We returned home, and passed an immense pile of stones,
which had been gathered by passing travellers, who al-
ways added one to the heap, in commemoration of a
young man who died on that spot when going out for
America. Silly as was the superstition, I added one to
the mountain.

We visited " Nancy Brown's Parlor." This is a
rock projecting into the sea, with a seat upon it like a
settee ; a romantic spot. At the left is a deep dark
cavern of water, running under the precipice, which fills
the mind with wonder and sublimity. The morning
was propitious, and below us upon the strand might be
seen women, some with jugs, and some with sea-weed,
children picking shells, and not the least interesting
were the busy sea-gulls, hopping from rock to rock,
or alighting upon the water, in pairs. One couple,
who had stood upon a craggy rock talking in the most
affable manner, amused us by a piece of gallantry, as
we supposed of the gentleman, which would do honor to
any man in like circumstances. They had sat talking
for some time, when a surging wave dashed over them
and concealed them from our sight ; they appeared
again as the wave retired, in the same position, when
the adventurous Miss gracefully sailed away, and seated
herself upon a rock in the water at a distance, looking
back to the mate she had left, who for a time sat un-
moved as if saying, " you have rudely left me, and I
will not follow you." But in a little time he was at
her side, and they commenced a close chat, and then
they both gracefully sailed back to the rock they had
left. We could not tell whether he was gently chiding

374 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxii.

her for leaving him, to venture further into the deep, or
whether he was congratulating her on her dexterity in
keeping her footing, when the foaming wave dashed
so furiously over her white wing. It was a pretty
sight.

When returning, we met a peasant girl, with her
dress turned over her head, who in the most earnest
manner spoke in Irish, and beckoned us to go further.
We declined, and she changed her laughing look for one
of pitiful endearing disappointment, which prevailed
with me, and I said, " We will go." She exultingly
bounded away, leading us forward, looking back to en-
courage us, for the way was precipitous and somewhat
difficult, till she placed us upon an awfully grand preci-
pice. Here she stopped, and, in the most animated
manner, pointed us down, then to a mountain across
the channel, then to the golden stripes of the sun upon
the water, then to the sea-gulls, then to the eastern sky,
which was extremely beautiful ; and when she saw we
understood and were pleased, she was delighted. Had
she been a well-educated girl, she could not have dis-
played more taste for the sublime and beautiful. She
was pretty in look and graceful in manner, and when
we parted, and saw her entering the mud-wall cabin, a
companion of pigs, with no employment but feeding
them and milking a goat, or gathering turf from
some bog, we said, what a pity that such an intellect
should be lost, and who must account for all this
waste ? What a pity that government or aristocratic
pride should place barriers to the improvement of the
talented poor. In no civilized nation, probably, is
there more waste of mind than in Ireland. Should any
dispute this, let him visit the county of Kerry. The
wild children there among the mountains, who spend
their time in herding cattle, often show the quickest per-
ception of all that is lovely in nature, and will answer
your questions with a clearness that would do honor to a
refined people.

Saturday, April 12th. — Made an excursion which
will long be remembered, in company with Mrs. S.,

CHAP. XIH.J CO. OF KERRY. 375

(the woman who first introduced me to the priest, and
to the family who so kindly entertained me), and the
two Miss Jacksons, and little Thomas the brother.
We were supplied with a basket of bread and meat
for the dinner, and bound for Dunquin. The kind
loquacious Mrs. S. had a favorite priest to whom she
wished to introduce me on the way. An old church,
and some Ogham stones which had long puzzled anti-
quarians, must first be seen, and then we were ushered
in to see the priest. He was sitting by the fire, read-
ing a newspaper, surrounded with Latin authors
of various descriptions, and piles on piles of the most
antiquated looking books in Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin. He received us with the greatest kindness,
arid the most simple urbanity of manners, and never in
Ireland had I spent an hour where so much real
knowledge had fallen on my ear. He was truly a
learned antiquary ; retired in this desolate part of the
earth, buried in his musty books, he had gathered rich
materials for thinking and conversation. He showed
us printed volumes of more than two hundred years old,
one a geography, one a dictionary, and a few histories.
He urged us to stay and take some refreshment. He
was old and infirm, but insisted on accompanying us to
the gate, upon the top of the pillars of which were
two cannon balls, which Cromwell had left in besieging
the place. I felt regret in leaving this complaisant
old man, for he united the benevolent gentleman with
the learned linguist and antiquary. I have since been
told he is much esteemed by all classes.

We proceeded across a strand, where the sand was
so mellow that our poor horse could scarcely proceed,
and, to make up the dreadfuls, one of our traces broke.
Happily a rope was found, or we might have been left
to wade through the sand and wet, but we dragged
through half a mile, and found ourselves on firm foot-
ing. Our next object was a tower near the top
of Sybil Head, and after sitting down upon the beach
and taking a hearty lunch, the young ladies and I pro-
ceeded. The way was tedious, and the wind strong,

37(5 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxn.

but after much toiling and resting we reached the edi-
fice.

The tower was erected for a telegraph, and was
going to decay. Supposing this was the only object
of curiosity, I felt a little disappointed. Leaving the
young ladies in the tower, I ascended the mountain,
which appeared at the top a sharp ridge like the roof
of a house. I was just about taking the last step
to gain the height, and then call out that I was on the
loftiest peak of Sybil Head, when a little unobserved
shepherd-girl called out, " Ye'll be destroyed ! Look,
look !" I looked, and started back with horror. A
precipice overlooking the sea many hundred feet below,
presented itself, a wall secured a little part, iind then
a shelving rock, bending over the waves, which were
dashing and roaring with awful grandeur. 1 heard
the roaring, but supposed it was the sea we had left
at the foot of the mountain, and but for the little
shepherd-girl should doubtless have stepped over into
the awful abyss. Children, it seemed, were peculiarly
my guardian angels in Ireland ; three times they have
saved me from immediate destruction by their care
and kindness. The rocks upon a part of this ridge are
like an inclined plane put there by the Great Archi-
tect, and form a good security to the cautious. My
young companions placed themselves in a condition to
look over, lying down, while I held their feet ; one
hasty peep was all I ventured, it was enough. A
young lad and two girls were tending cattle on this
awful brow, sheep were grazing upon the brink, and
little girls spent the livelong day sporting near its very
edge, as unconscious of danger as the bird that flies over
them.

O those sweet shepherd children ! Everywhere on
the coast I found them, and everywhere I found them
kind and simple-hearted, knowing nothing of the con-
taminating influences of cities, and gentle as the sheep
they are tending. Often have I seen them sitting on
the brow of some hill, or on a rock, their silken hair
waving in the breeze, their feet naked, a stick in one

CO. OP KERRY. 377

hand, and sometimes a leaf of a book in the other, and
I blessed the Father of all mercies that he had left in
one island of the sea, a people who still retain the sim-
ple life and simple manners of patriarchal days. From
the sheep-fold was the sweet psalmist of Israel taken to
be king, and in that humble employment was his heart
moulded to all those soft touches, which so move the
soul in his psalms.

When I looked on these Kerry girls, I thought, shall
I pity such loveliness ? Shall I wish to tear you
away to pent-up cities, to cramp your minds to fashion's
moulds, when here Nature, in all her forms and freaks,
both beautiful and sublime, is before you ! The moun-
tain breeze is ever fanning their dark hair, they know
nothing, they heed nothing of the vain show of the
world, but are content, when at night they have
herded their flock, to lie down in their cabin till the
early dawn shall again summon them to the mountains.
We asked one of these little girls, who was sitting upon the
very edge of the precipice, if she had no fear. <: Not
any, miss," was the answer. I was glad to leave it, yet
I could not but look upon what we had left as the most
awfully grand spot I had ever visited.

When we reached our car, our company were
patiently waiting, but to my awful disappointment told
me there was not time to visit Dunquin, and Mrs. S.,
who seemed to be the heroine in all this day's ma-
noeuvring, told me she had never heard of it before.
I have found some fault with others in this work, and
have recorded some of their misdoings, and am not so
vain as to suppose I have passed through the length
and breadth of Ireland, and not done some things and
said some things out of time and season. Now here I
made a little mistake, and am happy to acknowledge it
as publicly as I mention the mistakes of others. This
woman had a kind heart, and had manifested as much
of it towards me as a poor woman could do ; she had
taken much pleasant trouble to arrange affairs for this
trip, she had waited patiently upon the beach while we
were exploring wonders above her, and when we came

378 CO. OF KERRY. [CHAP. xxn.

down, was in readiness to go home. When I mention-
ed Dunquin, her surprise appeared to me like real
intrigue. I thought she could not but know that
it was the object of my journey, and I told her so in
language which she understood and felt. I hate de-
ceit, and thought here was full proof. The time, too,
I could not think was so far spent ; but here she was in
the right, and had I taken my own course, and persuad-
ed the driver to take us the perilous route, which was
nine miles, it would have been a frightful expedition
indeed. But we were saved, in spite of my determina-
tion to the contrary.

So much for disappointment, and hatred of deceit,
and so much for not feasting my eyes on Dunquin,
which had been a most ardent desire of my heart.
But Dingle must be left. My stay had been a long
one, and notwithstanding that all the good people there
did not understand what kind of religion one must
possess, to be concerned about any party but one's own,
and that self-denial is neither to be required nor expected
1800 years after the pattern was set in the church —
that the world is constantly improving, and the church
must keep pace with it or lose her respectability — yet
there were a few that received Christ's legacy with all
its tribulations. With these few I had passed profita-
ble hours, and from these few I regretted to part.
But the morning came, when the car must go out to
Tralee. Mrs. Jackson was early preparing me refresh-
ments for my journey, and by the middle of the day 1
was in Tralee, and stayed long enough to write a note
to my friend Mr. Wralpole, which I presume was not
so palatable as another three shillings would have
been. My next car that day took me to Tarbert ; stayed
at a hotel ; the price was exorbitant, and when I
expressed my surprise to the woman, saying no other
hotel in Ireland was so high, her answer was cer-
tainly a candid honest one, " I intend to make all I can
out of every one that comes here, and if I can make a
shilling out of you, I will."

A walk around the bay gave a beautiful view

CHAP, xxiii.] CO. OF LIMERICK. 379

of this ancient place. The promontory on which the
light-house stands, with a few tasty buildings, was a
fairy spot. I was shown the remains of old forts, which
a gentleman standing by said were built by the Danes,
who once figured here to great advantage, till driven out
by the spirited Irish. Sending my baggage to the steam-
boat, I walked three miles on the borders of the Shan-
non, to see the beauties of the country, and the Knight
of Kerry's demesne, which, like all the demesnes in Ire-
land, is more proud than humble.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Sail up the Shannon %to Limerick — Poorhouse Stirabout — Sleepless Night at
Ennis — Town without Bread — Grievous Ignorance — True Delivery of my one-
armed Charioteer — Basket of Bones— My Carpet-bag ransacked — Learned
Schoolmaster — Exchange of Compliments — Red Petticoats — Old Pedlar and
his daughter — Temple of Nature — The back of4he Barracks — Marble Quarry
—Completely Watersoaked— Connemara Hospitality— Bundles of Straw— Sab-
bath in the Mountain Cabin.

I TOOK my seat in the steam packet as a deck pas-
senger, which in Ireland is synonymous with a corner
in a Christian Church in America for colored people.
Here I found a multitude of well-dressed and ill-
dressed, informed and uninformed, many of them going
to take passage for America. The sail on this noble
river, the Mississippi of Ireland, was pleasant, and the
city of Limerick one of business and beauty. I found
a neat inviting lodging-house, kept by a well-bred
woman from Dublin ; and so pleasant was my stay here,
I regretted leaving the city. The town did not appear
so poverty-stricken as many ; the people looked intel-
ligent, and the activity reminded me a little of busy
New York. I perambulated the town, and inquired
of cobblers and tinkers what was this, and what was
that. One explained to me all the wonders he knew
of the ancient cathedral, where hung on one end the

380 CO. OF CLARE. [CHAP. xxin.

cannon balls which were taken from it in Cromwell's
wars. It is now used for a military school and a Pro-
testant place of worship. The city is three miles in
circumference ; and but one gate, called the water
Gate of St. John's Castle, is now standing of the seven-
teen which were there in 1760. I found a laboring
man near the poor-house, who told me there were 1700
inmates, and " I don't know what to say of the stira-
bout there they give 'em." " And what, sir, is the
matter with the stirabout r" u Why, by dad, ma'am,
'twould give a man waik quawrters to ait it. They say
it runs like wawter. " This I found was the universal
cry of all the beggars throughout Ireland, when told to
go to the poor-house. u The stirabout is so waik, that
'twould take the life of ye." My stay in Limerick was
too short, though I saw the whole town and its outward
curiosities. The people was what I wanted to see. At
three I took a car for Ennis, an ancient town going to
decay. Clare Castle, standing a little distance from the
town, now the abode §f soldiers, makes a pretty appear-
ance at the bridge upon the banks of the river. Here
too are the remains of a Franciscan monastery, and you
are told of a great battle fought here in 1298.

The coachman said he would take me to suitable
lodgings, and these lodgings were his own house. His
wife told me I must sleep with her if I stopped. It was
dark, and I was shown into a chamber where were three
beds, and finding a child in the filthy one prepared for
me, I wrapped my cloak about me and lay across the
foot. At two o'clock the family came into the chamber,
and were soon snoring about me, while I kept vigil
through the whole night.

Scibbath. Mr. Murphy preached a most solemn ser-
mon OR the judgment, and pointedly applied it to all
classes, especially the rich, who bring up their chil-
dren for this world. The building had once the finest
gothic aisles that ever adorned a church in Ireland.
Went again in the evening, and heard a second ser-
mon from the same man, and wandered about the town
till darkness warned me to return. But the lodging !

CHAP, xxiu.] CO. OF GALWAY. 381

I had not slept a moment in Ennis, and I inquired if
my room was the same ? u Where you slept last night,"
was the answer. Determining that my bed should be
changed, even if it were for the worse, I went out, and
from house to house made diligent search. The army
was going through the town, and lodging-places were
taken up. A woman interested herself, and after
many fruitless applications she hit upon an expedient.
u Good luck to ye, I have it ! a genteel woman lodgin'
with me will give ye a part of her bed, and she's a
lady that wouldn't disgrace any body in the kingdom.
Here, miss, I've brought a fine lady from America,
who wants a lodgin', and sure ye wouldn't refuse her
half of yer bed. She's alone, a stranger, and ye know
it isn't for the money I would take her." The miss
gave a sideways-glance. " And 'tisn't every stranger
I'd be takin' into my bed ; and how came ye without a
lodgin' so late at night ?" This was all sterling sense,
and telling her how I come in this plight, she changed
her tune and bade me welcome. But I made only a
sorry change with regard to comfort, though not so many
chums in my room. Paid three pence for my lodging,
and took the car for Gort, and reached it at ten
o'clock.

Here I went from street to street, and almost from
door to door, to find a roll of bread and a cup of cocoa.
There seemed to be nothing to eat, and twice when I
asked for bread, the answer was " The people of Gort
don't eat, ma'am ; we have no bread." I knew not
what to say, or what to do ; at last I found a few small
loaves, and took a penny's worth, and left the town to
walk to Oranmore, a distance of fourteen miles. Gort
is a neat little town, pleasantly situated, but the an-
swer to the question, " How are you getting along in
Gort ?" was, u The same as everywhere. Badly en-
tirely, ma'am ; Gort is a poor little town : the poor gets
no labor, thank God."

The day was unusually warm for April, the sun
scorching, and my feet sore : I often found occasion to
call at a cabin to rest. One woman was standing at

382 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. xxm.

a corner, waiting my approach, and called out, u Good
morrow, ma'am ; ye look wairy, come in and rest ye
a bit." The simple manners of these unsophisticated
peasantry are so much like the patriarchs of old, that,
in spite of their untidiness, they cannot but be inter-
esting to every lover of antiquity. " An' would ye
take a sup of milk ?" Telling her I never used it,
" What can I get ye ? I have no bread." I thanked
her, and could only satisfy her by saying that I had
just been eating some. She then sat down to
admire my " comely dress ;" a little boy came in,
and she asked him who I was. u A lady, ma'am."
" See how quick he answers ; he knows ye are a lady,
because ye're clane and proper." The ignorance of this
woman was painful ; she seemed to know nothing be-
yond her own cabin. Seeing that she wanted a pin, I
gave her a couple of rows ; the paper was red, and she
admired it with great wonder. A son of twenty came
in, and she immediately presented the paper to him.
They both held it up, and endeavored to look through
it, and both seemed delighted at the novel sight. I was
really unhappy at seeing these innocent, kind-hearted
creatures of want, dying for lack of knowledge. Yes,
dead as to anything appertaining to this life, for they
had no comforts for the body, and they lived neglected,
and apparently knew little else but what instinct dic-
tated.

Passing on, I reached the hospitable house of Oran-
more, where I stopped in November, and was received
with the kindest greetings, and kept without expense.
The Connemara girl had long been gone, but no other
changes had taken place.

A night's rest refreshed all but my feet, and I at-
tempted to walk to Galway, as I had sent on my carpet
bag, and felt a little uneasy. The distance was but
four and a half miles, but my feet soon became so
painful, that it seemed quite impossible to proceed.
An old woman saluted me, " An' ye'll be kilt with walk-
in', an' wouldn't ye ride for sixpence ? I know a poor
man who keeps a little ass, that would gladly take ye

CHAP, xxm.] CO. OF GALWAY. 383

for that." She took me to a hovel, and called out,
" Here, John, wouldn't ye take a lady to Galway for
sixpence ?" " And that I would," said John, jumping
out of bed. It was eight o'clock ; the children were
preparing for school, and though ragged they were not
dirty. There were five of them, all with black hair
and eyes, and the mother was a comely well-bred wo-
man. The man had but one arm, and no means of
support but by his cart and ass. In a few moments
all was ready. I insisted that he should stop and eat
his potatoe, though I saw none preparing. 1 found
afterwards he had none, and no prospect of any till the
sixpence should be earned. It was a touching case of
uncomplaining want. When we were going away, the
woman said, " Maybe the lady hasn't got the change
now." Taking the hint that she wanted the sixpence,
I said " Yes." But the poor man's sensitiveness was
awakened, and he hurried me away with " Never mind
— never mind," which made me anxious to hear his
history. He had been a herder, with twenty-five
pounds a year, and brought a swelling on his arm by
lifting, which after twelve months of suffering ended in
amputation. He lost his employment, and could do
nothing but drive about that little ass and cart. " A
kind gentlewoman, ma'am, was all my hope for many a
year, who called on me to go on an errand to fetch
a bucket of water, and never gave me less than a shillin' ;
and many a sorry day since 1 knew not where to get the
potatoe. But God is good."

We were now joined by a woman who had walked
from Gort to Oranmore the evening previous after four
o'clock, and was now, with a burden on her back,
going to Galway. She said she was forty-seven, the
mother of nineteen children, and but three of them
alive ; the youngest that died was two years old. Gay
and cheerful, " light of foot," she was quite an inte-
resting object. We were soon joined by an old woman,
who was sitting upon a wall, with a basket upon her
back, which caused my coachman to quicken his speed,
declaring u the same that she carried in her basket

384 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. xxm.

was enough to give us all the plague, and I'll not be
her company," whipping the poor ass, while the old
woman was determined not to be outdone — the Ameri-
can lady she must see. The first good woman was
quite annoyed, and begged her to keep a little off.
" What," I inquired, " are the contents of the basket ?"
" A dead horse's bones, which she's goin' to sell,
ma'am." This was to me a new, degrading, and
humiliating mode of earning bread, which I never
could have thought woman would be compelled to
undertake. Three well-dressed young ladies mingled
in the group, for they had a curiosity to get a
glimpse of the American, and accosted me quite
pleasantly, not in the least regarding what company
was about them. But the man, by jerks and blows,
succeeded in leaving the bones in the rear before we
reached town.

What subjects for contemplation has this morning
presented! The humble clean family; the uncomplain-
ing children going out to school without any breakfast ;
the suffering man still retaining a sense of honor in
refusing the money, and a sense of propriety in es-
caping from the woman and basket ; the sad state to
which a country must be reduced, when the cheapest
article of food could not be purchased by the poor in a
season of plenty, sufficient to make them comfortable ;
and where woman is made to be anything but what God
ordained or fitted her to be, the dishonor instead of
the " glory of man."

I gave the poor man a few pennies more than the six-
pence, and this so affected him, that I was glad when
he bade u God speed," and hastened to buy his pota-
toes. Was it ever so with any people ? And will God
always see the poor man's want, and not relieve him ?
If the cries of Ireland do not reach his ears, their pa-
tience surely must, and he will come in judgment or
mercy to their aid.

I called at my old lodgings, was welcomed, and
learned that the asthmatic mother had gone down to
the grave, and that comfortable lodgings could be given

CHAP, xxm.] CO. OFGALWAY. 385

without taking a room with " John." I first hastened to
the car-office tg make arrangements for Clifden, and
there found my carpet-bag upon the floor in the cor-
ner broken open, and the articles flying in fragments
about it. I inquired the cause of the agent, who
insolently answered, " Your things are all there. An
officer's wife said she had examined them, and found
the value was not much, and she had left them as she
found them ; but I must have an additional shilling for
my trouble, or the luggage shall not leave the office."
I asked him whether as a stranger I had merited such
treatment. He cared nothing, he said, for strangers,
nor anything for Americans. Offering a sovereign to
change, u he should change it when he knew the
weight, but should not trust to my honesty." The
sovereign was weighed, and proved to be more than
weight. He took the shilling, and asked my name to
enter on the book. I declined, and told him I should
have no more to fto with Bianconi's cars. That I had
paid him considerable, and this was not the first time
that I had been treated rudely and unkindly by his
agents.

44 1 am quite sorry, ma'am. I should be glad of your
money, and you will wear yourself out by walking."
Telling him that would be my misfortune, I passed out,
found the one-armed man, and agreed with him to take
me fourteen miles for two shillings. His price was a
shilling a day, and he could perform this journey in a
day. He went home, and I to my lodgings, and early
in the morning was prepared for the ride, but no man
appeared. I took my parasol, leaving my luggage, and
went on, hoping the old man might soon follow. The
wife of a poor curate soon joined me, with two fine
boys, a book and a rattan, going on a two miles' excur-
sion for exercise and air, and gave me as much talk as
I could reasonably ask concerning religious societies
in Galway. She deplored greatly the delusions of
Romanism, but the divisions among Protestants she
thought were more to be regretted than all. Her hus-
band, she said, was a spiritual indefatigable laborer in
17

386 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP.XXIII-

the cause of Christ, and had lost a promised promo-
tion from the bishop, because he had bought to obey a
higher Master than an earthly one. My next call was
to the house of a very civil shoe-maker, whose wife
showed me every attention, and conducted me into the
National School, where I heard better specimens than
usual of reading and grammar, and what is quite
noticeable in all schools, a knowledge of arithmetic
beyond the years of children in other countries. My
best wishes for the success of public schools in Ire-
land, for the more I see of them, the more do I
expect that great good will be the result. I passed
two other schools that day, but was not in time for
either.

The last four miles of my journey I had the company
of a police-officer. I have invariably found these men
civil and sober, and a great blessing to Ireland as she
now is.

My place of stopping was Outerard. A clean house
and hospitable woman gave me a pleasant evening.
The town is a tidy one in outward looks, and is some-
what celebrated for having a mineral well, and a sal-
mon-leap in the river. A bathing house is made in a
rock of curious construction, and a cottage of such
beautiful finish that it js an ornament to the town, and
a standing monument of the correct taste of the doctor
who designed it. The family refused any compensa-
tion, sending me away with the kindest wishes, and I
turned into a house where were huddled a group
of boys and girls. Certainly if there is any skill
in packing lumber, they had acquired it, and any merit
in a desire for instruction, they deserve it. When
I entered, the "master skilled to rule" was standing,
one foot upon a chair, his elbow resting upon his
knee, spectacles across his nose, a pen in his hand,
which he was mending, ever and anon flourishing it,
as he vehemently expatiated on some clause in the
lesson he was explaining. He bowed long and low to
me, and then spoke in Latin to a boy who answered
in the same language. Then turning to a bevy in a

CHAP, xxin.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 387

dark corner, W!K> were urging their rights by hunches
and threats, he told them that the wandering Arab in
the great desert of Sahara, or the Siberian at the
frozen regions of the north, could as well understand
the meaning of civility as they ; and should he enjoin
taciturnity (though that was too refined a word for
such boors as he had before him), they would as
readily obey him.

u I have done much, honored lady, for these lads
before you, and to say the truth they are the first fel-
lows in the kingdom. Come here ; let's hear you con-
jugate this verb." Before the boy had half run
through, " There, lady, what do you think of my man-
ner of teaching ?" u It cannot be disputed, sir." "I
ought to be promoted for what I have done. Go on,
honey, and tell the whys and wherefores. And so
you see, lady, no stone's unturned." I assured him I
had seen nothing like it in all Ireland. " Hear, hear,
my good fellows ! Here's a lady of the first order
speaking, and mark what she says. 1 knew when she
entered, by her looks and language, she was a lady of
the highest order. Now mark !"

"Full well they laughed, and counterfeited glee."

Hear, hear ! I made a speech somewhat in keeping
with the place and persons, and had I never before felt
my own greatness, now was the favorable moment.
A long and low bow, ended by two or three short ones
and a hearty good-bye on my part, finished the morning
comedy.

My journey lay through a wild mountainous country,
and the red petticoats scattered here and there upon
hill and lake side gave a romantic touch to the strange
scenery for many a mile. A walk of six miles called
for rest and a little soap for my blistered feet, and
turning into a cabin upon the top of a hill, I heard read-
ing as I entered the door. The woman of the house
was sitting with an infant on her lap, reading to
a friend who had entered, and I soon perceived
she had a cultivated mind, though her lot was cast in

388 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. xxm.

that desert. She was a Protestant, and said, " you
have no idea of the dreadful condition Ve are in upon
these mountains. No school, and scarcely a book, and
seven miles from any church." I promised, if I passed
that way on my return, to spend a night with her, and
bring her some books. I now felt the want of my
luggage. An old man and his daughter entered
with each a heavy burden, which they tried to lighten
at every cabin upon the mountains. They were dealers
in dry goods. u I hope," said the intelligent woman,
" you will keep the company of these worthy people
across the mountain." I had not walked far when a
cough behind caused me to turn about, and the girl
said, "Ye are quick on the fut, and I feared we should
not gain upon ye." The father soon joined us, and
after a " God save ye kindly, we're all travellers
together," he added, " I rair'd the little gal yonder,
and a blackguard of a fellow kept his eye on her for a
twelvemonth, till by her consent and mine he married
her, stopped with her one month, took the few pounds
she had gained by dailin', and went away, the villain,
and set up the business, and has never put the two eyes
on her sence."

We were all fatigued, our feet blistered, and we sat
down upon a bank of one of the beautiful lakes
which are dotting this wild mountain-scenery for many
a mile. Having my Testament in my hand, " ye have
a nice little book," said the old man. " Shall I read a
little ?" I asked. " Plaise God, ye will," was the
answer. I opened at the 14th of John, and read.
" Where," said the daughter, " did you get that beauti-
ful book?" "It sounds," said the father, " like our
Catholic raidin7, and what the priest has told us from the
altar." They had heard portions of the Scripture, but
did not know that this was the Word of God till I told
them. The daughter took it in her hand, turned over
the leaves, read a few portions intelligibly, and asked,
" Where could I get one ? Would you sell me this ?"
I promised one from my basket, should it reach Clif-
den while she was there. The old man clasped his

CHAP, xxiii.j CO. OF GALWAY. 389

hands, raised his eyes, blessed the good God that he
had met such a lady, and such blessed words which
"melt the heart." It was a pleasant hour. We need-
ed no cushioned desk nor fringed drapery, to adorn
our pulpit. We wanted no lighted gas to enable us to
read our prayers from gilt edged books. The chande-
lier of day was hanging out in heaven's high dome,
and the pure waters of the lake were sparkling in its
beams. Our temple was a lofty one, and as we sat to-
gether within its broad portals, we read the sweet and
condescending words, u Let not your hearts be trou-
bled." u In my father's house are many mansions.'7
" Yes," ejaculated the old man, u blessed be his holy
name, there are many mansions." I then felt that God
was truly a Spirit, and could be worshipped on the
mountain top or lowly valley, and needed no temple
made with hands.

" Must we go ?" I asked, as the book was closed,
" and leave this heavenly place ?" u Plaise God, we
must," the old man answered. Our walk was ten miles
upon the top of a mountain spotted with lakes. The
old man became fatigued, and they stopped as the sun
was setting, at a miserable looking lodging-house for
the night, leaving a three miles' walk for me alone,
with weary feet, before I could find " a dacent house
for a body like me." The daughter, to encourage me,
told me one of the a good lies'' which so much abound,
that it was u but a short mile under yer fut." Dark-
ness soon came over me, and no smoke of a cabin cheer-
ed my eye. I sat down upon a little hillock, and again
looked over the scenes I had passed, and thanked God
that I was in Ireland, and that I had met the old man
on the mountain, and hoped he would rest his weary
old limbs, though I might not find a shelter. I heard
a footstep, and as it approached, inquired if the lodg-
ing-house of the mountain was near. u A perch or two
under yer fut, and ye are in it." I went on ; as I
reached the door I heard laughing, music, and danc-
ing. It was a barrack ; and a piper, with more
whiskey than good sense in his brain, was blowing

390 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP.XXIIJ.

with all his might for the barefooted girls and merry
lads, who were in the highest glee. " Is this a lodg-
ing-house ?" I inquired. " Go back, and you will find
it." I stumbled my way back of the barracks, and
opened a door, and a tidy looking woman received me
very coldly by saying, u We never turn people out of
doors. But why are you here so late ? Why didn't
you stop back ? Are you travelling alone?" By this
time my patience was departing, and I answered, u Do
you keep lodgers ? and can you keep me ?" " We
never turn folks out of doors." " I do not suppose
you turn people out of doors, if you put out a sign to
ask them in." The master heard this, stepped into
the room, and quite in Irish mood bade me welcome,
though he was an Englishman. " Sit down, and make
yourself as comfortable as you can. We will do as
well as we can for you." A clean bed was provided ;
two others, well filled, were my companions, but never
was rest more refreshing. The next day was rainy,
and I employed my time reading, writing, and listen-
ing to the music of two fiddlers, who told me they were
employed by gentlemen to amuse them at their houses.
So fond are the Irish of music, that, in some form or
other, they must and will have it. A piper entered
on a wooden leg, and called for a glass of whiskey,
which the daughter gave him, and feeling a little jeal-
ous lest the fiddlers might be thought more than rivals,
he gave such proofs of dexterity as put all to silence.
" We live so remote," said the man, u that these little
droppings now and then on a rainy day make the time
pass very pleasantly. In fact, I don't know how we
should get along without them. It's nature, you see,"
holding a granddaughter of eight months' old upon the
floor to see her dance. " You see, ma'am, they'll dance
before they can walk."

The next morning the inn-keeper took me to see a
marble quarry in the mountains, which he had explor-
ed ; the rain beat us cruelly, but we proceeded. The
slabs were beautifully variegated with green, brown,
and black. This quarry was opened, and then stopped,

CHAP, xxiii.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 391

the owner not accepting the offer of seven pounds a
ton by Government. The quarry is immense, and thou-
sands of men might find employment if they would be
allowed to work. These mountains abound in the rich-
est minerals. This man has spent much time in ex-
ploring and analysing their properties, and has found
copper and some other ore. Yet rich as Ireland is in
all that might make her a bright gem indeed among all
the nations, her Government gives her arts and manu-
factures but little encouragement.

The sun looked out long enough for me to put all in
readiness for departure, and when I had proceeded
about a mile, the wind increased almost to a tornado,
and the rain seemed to have cleared out all her pipes,
and was pouring forth torrents fresh and clean. 1 was
now in a woeful plight — my parasol, which had with-
stood many a buffeting, soon turned inside out, and
became a wreck. No cabin was near till I was drenched.
At last a miserable one met my eye, and going in, I
was welcomed by two young women, and a young man,
who was a traveller too, and inquired, a Where did ye
come from, that ye are out in this stawrm?" Telling
him, and that it was fine when I left, he said, " Aw,
he's a blackguard and a rascal to let ye from his door to-
day. He knew it would be stawrmy, an' he's a honey
tongue, but his wife is a sour heifer ; and wasn't ye a
payin' the blackguard, that he was so willin' to let ye
come ?" u I was paying them full price for all I had."
" They are divils then, and the divil '11 have 'em, and
that's the end on't." I heard of Connemara — that it
had been a custom from time immemorial, that if a stran-
ger is not welcomed into a cabin at night-fall, or leaves
it in a storm, the cabin-holder is immediately called up-
on to inquire into the reason ; and if it appears that it
is inhospitality, that family is set up as a mark of con-
tempt to its neighbors.

The storm was increasing, and I could not stop,
for the mud cabin was nearly as wet as the road ; the
poor woman said, u If ye could stay, ye should not go
out." After walking a few yards, the wind was more

392 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. xxm.

violent and the rain heavier. I turned my back, and
strove to ascend a hill in that way. In despair I stood ;
when looking to my left I saw at a distance a cabin,
and a little girl standing at the door. She was gazing
at me, as I supposed, from idle curiosity, and, as the
last alternative, I hesitatingly turned towards the dreary
abode. u Welcome, welcome, stranger, from the
stawrm ; ye're destroyed. I told the little gal to open
the door and stand in it, that ye mightn't think we
was shuttin' ye out in the stawrm ; we've got a good
fire and plenty of turf; and though the cabin is small,
and not fittin' for sich a lady as ye, I'll make it better
thanthe'mad stawrm without ; and I'll soon heave over
a, pot of potatoes, and get ye a sup of milk, and I wish
my wife was here. I'm but a stranger ; but here sence
Monday." All this passed before I had time to tell
my country, pedigree, or business to Ireland. But when
he heard all that, he was more anxious still to heap
me with kindness. A huge pile of blazing turf soon
dried my clothes, and I was sitting " high and dry" by
the side of the heels of a stage horse, who was taking
his lunch from a pile of straw at the foot of a bed. In
an hour the potatoes were ready, and the kind little
girl brought me a broken soup-plate with two eggs on
it, and a il sup of milk." The eggs I gave to a coach-
man who had dropped in to exchange horses, and took
some salt and my tea-spoon, which I carried in my
pocket ; and upon a stool by the side of a pot, on
which a basket was placed containing the lumpers, I
ate my supper with the family and coachman, not only
with a cheerful, but a grateful heart.

Night came, but what was to be my lodging ? The
bed in the room was nothing but a pile of straw, with
a dirty blanket and heavy woollen quilt over it ; but
the horse, to my great delight, was removed by the
coachman, leaving two good bundles of clean straw
imtouched. The father went out ; a little son fell
asleep, and I persuaded him to go to bed, the girl
saying, u He musn't lie there ; father told us that we
ure to sit by the fire, and ye are to lie in the bed." I

CHAP, xxiii.] CO. OF GALWAY. 393

refused, telling her I should not do it ; but when the
father came in, he told the son in anger, u he'd break
every bone in his body if he didn't go out of that." I
at last prevailed on the father to allow him to remain,
and told him I had an excellent bed in my eye. " An'
sure it isn't the bundle of straw ; not a ha-'porth of yer
wet and wairy bones shall lie there to-night." I in-
sisted, that I greatly preferred it as a luxury, and finally
took one bundle, removed the band, made a little open-
ing, and placing it before the fire, put a second one at
the bottom of the door, as the breach was large and the
wind piercing ; and then with some loose handfuls
stopped the crevices above and around, till all was quite
snug. Then wrapping my coat closely about me, I lay
down in as comfortable a nest, and slept as sweetly as
I ever had in America or Ireland.

The fire died upon the hearth, and the cold awakened
me. The day was the Sabbath ; the storm had not
in the least abated. Lhad my Testament, and spent
the morning reading the crucifixion and resurrection of
the Saviour to the family. The father assured me
that " he had never heard a ha'porth of it read
before ; we are as ignorant, good lady, as the goats
upon the mountain. God help us!" A woman en-
tered with a red petticoat turned over her head, and
the man told her in Irish who I was, and that I had
come to see the poor. She reached her hand, and said
in Irish, u Then she is my sister." The little girl ex-
plained, u She is a very religious body, and means you
are her sister if you are religious." She was a moun-
tain Connemara girl, but not a fac-simile of the one I
met in Oranmore. She gave me a hearty shake of the
hand as she went out, telling the man she must come
and see me again. The man said, " If ye could spake
in Irish, ye could do good to these craturs, for they are
as stupid as the marble-stone." One told me that they
wore red petticoats to keep off the fairies ; " and this,"
he added, " they fully believe." While he was de-
ploring their ignorance, his little son told him he had
17*

394 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. xxm.

dreamed a bad dream. " Bless yourself, then, nine
times, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, when ye are goin' to sleep, and ye won't drame
at all." " Do you believe this?" I asked. "I do,
ma'am 5 the priest told me so, and the priest must
know." " The priest, sir, insulted you if he told you
so ; it is all nonsense, and you should not listen to it."
He shook his head at my incredulity, but said no
more.

The rain ceased, and I must go to the next lodging-
house, about two miles. Asking the man if he could
change half-a-crowA, " For what ?" as I hesitated, " I
will not change a half crown, nor a shilling, nor a six-
pence ; nor a ha'porth shall the childer take, for that
blackguard bed ye laid yer wairy bones upon. If I
had a half-crown, I would give it to let ye ride to Clif-
den." This was true Connemara hospitality, and I
went out without leaving a farthing, where I had had
value received, and should have felt it a great privilege
to give them a little.

I reached the lodging-house, and saw the good
woman and all about her in unusual trim for the
people in that mountain, and felt much cheered at so
neat and comfortable a looking place. " But we cannot
entertain ye, because a daughter is to be married this
evening." I then was more anxious to stop, for among
all the varieties I had seen, I never had been present
at an Irish wedding. I went to a second, was denied ;
to a third, the answer here was, u She could not
accommodate so dacent a body." Decent or not de-
cent, I told her I must stay. The rain was beginning,
and I could not reach Clifden that night, neither was
I willing to be out so long on the Sabbath. At last
she consented, and gave me a good fire, a piece of
bread, and a plate of well cooked potatoes, which are
always given without charge in every lodging-house
where I stopped. The room where I lodged had
potatoes cut for planting, which was the creditable
reason why a u dacent body" should not be put in it.

«HAP. xxiv.] CO. OF GALWAY. 395

CHAPTER XXIV.

Clifden— Clifden Castle— Irish Holidays— Walk to Roundstone— Hardships of
Irish Tenants — Three Guides pointing three different ways — Potatoes a Curse
upon Ireland — A Rough and Weary road — Absence of Trees — An aged Pil-
grim— Good Wishes — A Timely Supply — Judicious Advice — A Kind Curate —
A Connernara School — Ascent of the Diamond Mountain, and Adventure by
the Way— Tully— No Bread to be had in the Town— The Isle of Oma, and the
Natives thereof— Change for the better in Conneinara— Return to Clifden.

Monday morning, walked in the rain to Clifden. Was
directed to a lodging place, and found an intelligent,
Protestant woman, who immediately brought me tea and
toast, as she saw me wet and fatigued. The romantic
town of Clifden presented a novel appearance, built as
it is upon a hill in part. The picturesque church
stands on an eminence, looking trim and independent
above its neighbors.

Visited the Protestant school, taught by a male and
female teacher. The children are mostly Roman
Catholics, and are partly clothed by the society, and
are advanced to grammar and geography. Next I
went to the national school, a great building gone to
decay, the school kept by a widow for the paltry com-
pensation of ten pounds a year. The boys had all
withdrawn, and no interest whatever was taken in the
school. Bishop M'Hale had prohibited the reading of
those portions of Scripture appertaining to the lessons ;
and the teacher, though a Catholic, talked seriously of
leaving the school on account of it. She is an intelli-
gent woman, and at the time of her marriage had
possessed a property of twelve thousand pounds,
which her good husband had the art of spending in a
few years. He is now dead, and she sits in a dilapidat-
ed school-room fifty-two weeks every year for a salary

396 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP: xxiv.

of ten pounds. I left the school, and ascended a diffi-
cult mountain to take a full survey of the town. It was
a most picturesque view. Mountains of rocks on every
hand, and the sea behind a little declivity ; the scat-
tered buildings here and there among the wildness of
the rocks about the village, make one feel transported
back to days of chivalry, when all the superstitious
legends were in full vogue, when fairies were plying
their skill, and knights and chieftains were the men of
renown.

April 30th. — I walked forth after a shower, scarcely
knowing or caring whither. I followed a neat roman-
tic path till a splendid stone gateway met my eye, and,
quite contrary to monarchical etiquette, the entrance
was open and free. I received a hearty welcome from
the good-natured keeper of the lodge, and an invitation
to walk in and take a cup potatoe, u the best in all the
world," she said. " Ye are welcome to go all over the
grounds, no walls or gates preventing. And if the
owner was at home, he would take ye through the
castle." Her husband led me to the path, and left me
to wander in the pleasure grounds where 1 pleased. A
romantic pile of moss-covered rocks was the first object
of curiosity. The roof was broken through, and
water trickled from the rocks down to a channel under
the stone-floor, which bears it silently away under
ground. Recesses in the interior made this structure
a still greater wonder, and seeing two laboring men, I
inquired what it could be. u A grotto, ma'am. An'
ye're a stranger from England, I s'pose." u No, sir,
from America." " From America ! America ! wel-
come, thrice welcome. An' I see ye have the green
badge of Ireland," alluding to my green coat, " and do
ye know the shamrock ?" picking a sprig and handing-
it to me ; " Ye are Ireland's friend, I know, and do ye
think we shall ever get any good ? America is doin'
much for us, an' we'll never fight for England." The
chief speaker was white-headed, yet he expected to
live to see Ireland have her rights. As they said,

CHAP, xxiv.] CO. OF GALWAY. 397

" God speed ye," I looked after these old men, and
surely, I thought, it is true —

" Hope springs eternal in the human breast,
Ireland ' never is, but always to be blest.' "

Following the winding path, I soon found the castle,
proud in height and architecture, embosomed in wood,
without gate or wall. After surveying it on every side,
I was more satisfied with its plan than any I had seen ;
for while it looked up in independent grandeur, it seem-
ed to look down with a bland smile, and say to the hum-
blest visitor, " I hope you are pleased." Going on
through the wood, I entered a garden such as few do-
mains could boast ; tastefully laid out on mountain
side and valley, without any enclosure, and gradually
losing itself in woods among rivulets and cascades.
The apple and lilac were in bloom, in the midst of
these varied delights. Now appeared a fairy castle,
a house with variegated pillars and open door, made of
shells of the most delicate shades, arranged in stars
and circles of beautiful workmanship. These showed
exquisite taste in the designer, and must have been
done with great cost and care. I found that a laboring
peasant was the architect of this wonderful fabric, but
he was kept most religiously in his rank, laboring for
eight pence a day.

Not a spot in all Ireland had been to my liking so
much as this, because it breathed such a republican air
of liberty. Not a placard said, " No trespass ;" no
surly porter followed to say, " My master allows no one
about the place without a written pass." But here the
visitor may sit, stand, or stroll, fanned by the breezes of
summer with the sweet scent of every flower, and feel
that all was made for his enjoyment. Leaving the en-
chantment, I went to the rocky shore (for the ocean
is dashing its waves in front of these delights), gathered
a few shells, and returned by the sea-side, passing a
monastery of monks where eighty boys are instructed,
and where five monks now reside. Its style and com-
fort are not like Mount Mellary.

CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. xxiv.

Thursday, May day. — Here the ancient custom of
dressing poles with flowers, and placing them before the
doors of the rich, is kept up. Horses and carriages are
ornamented with them, and the children of the peas-
antry call at the doors of the gentry to receive pre-
sents.* The holidays of the Irish peasantry present to
the stranger the character and condition of this people
in the broadest outlines. You see how the liberty,
which on such an occasion is allowed the greatest lati-
tude that it ever can take, is chastened by a cringing
servility, which says, " I am your humble slave." You
see the effort at tidiness and show, which give you the
extent of the scanty wardrobe acquired by the ill-paid
labor of the master. You see the quick perception of
generosity and meanness, as the gift is put into the
scale with the donor's wealth and station. You see the
full mark of enjoyment which the Irish heart is capable
of reaching above all others, both in sunshine and
storm ; and you see that God has stamped his image as
legibly, as nobly, yes, as invitingly, on the peasant as
on the lord.

I determined, if possible, to see Roundstone that
day, a walk of ten miles. Walked a few miles, when a
little boy of ten years old came up with a staff, and
was a pleasant companion, telling me many wonders
of the wild barren country. Passing a pile of stones,
he paused, and I walked on a few paces ; he seemed
fixed to the spot. I said, " it is a wild place, boy."
" A dreadful place it has been, ma'am, for robbers.
There is one buried under that pile of stones there,
who lived about here, and stayed on that island in the
lake you see back there ; it was long they watched
him, and at last one night they killed him, and put
him under that pile of stones." I inquired after
reaching the town, and was told that the story was
true ; that before Father Mathew had been there,

* I was told at Glengariff that the old lord furnishes his pocket
with shillings to meet the little girls at the door at May morning,
who first present him with an egg, a shamrock, or a bunch of wild
flowers.

CHAP, xxiv.] CO. OP GALWAY. 399

Connemara was infested by robbers. I asked the boy
to read ; he did so intelligibly, and answered every
question from the second of Matthew, respecting the
birth of the Saviour, correctly. " And what," I asked,
" is to become of this world ?" " The great Judge will
come and burn it up," was the answer. He was ready
in the Scriptures, though he had been trained in the Ca-
tholic church.

Two miles from the town a decently clad farmer ac-
costed me. He had been to attend a lawsuit, a case of
ejectment. " I have worked," he said, u on a farm
since a boy ; my father died, and left it to me, three
years ago. I had made a comfortable house for myself
and family, and been preparing manure all winter to
put in a greater crop of potatoes and corn. The
agent came round, saw the improvements, and told me
I should not sow any seed, but must quit the premises."
And he was actually ejected, notwithstanding the en-
couragement he had had from the landlord to make the
improvements. From twenty to twenty-four shillings an
acre were tenants giving on this rocky spot, which in
many places could not be ploughed. u I must take my
little all," added the man, u and leave my fathers'
bones, and seek a home in America." Hard is the lot
of the poor man in Ireland. If he is industrious, his
industry will not secure him a home and its comforts ;
these he must lose so soon as this home is above the
abode of the ox or the ass.

u Why don't you," said I to a widow who had an acre
of ground, " make things about your cabin look a lit-
tle more tidy ? You have a pretty patch of land, well
kept, and might look very comfortable." u But, lady,
I have but one little slip of a boy of fifteen years of
age, and he toils the long day to rair a bit of vegetable
to carry to market, and he helped me to put up this
little cabin, and if I make it look nice outside, the
agent will put a pound more rent on me, or turn me
out and my little things ; and I couldn't pay the pound."
These are facts all over Ireland. If the poor tenant
improves the premises, he must be turned out or pay

400 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. xxiv.

more. If he do not improve it, he is a lazy dirty
Irishman, and must be put out for that. I reached
Roundstone, and was kindly received by a Christian
Protestant woman who had invited me there before in
Clifden. Met an intelligent police-officer and his
sister ; and in the morning visited the school, taught
by a Roman Catholic, and supported by the Home
Mission. It is in its infancy, its funds low, and the
children supplied themselves with what books they had,
which were few and defaced. I sat in the school-room
till eleven, waiting for the scholars to assemble, and
with much urging succeeded in hearing two girls at-
tempt to read. The teacher is a learned man, but the
appearance of his person told that a schoolmaster's
salary in Ireland is a poor inducement to plod through
the declensions and conjugations of a Latin grammar.
The whole together was not attractive. The Testa-
ment is kept in school, and the teacher observed, " It is
read by all who wish to read it, and the others omit
it."

Mr. Crotty, the Presbyterian clergyman who em-
ploys the teacher, says he can do no better in the pre-
sent state of things. Poverty sits brooding on every-
thing here. A Church of England curate, a Presbyte-
rian clergyman, and Romish priest divide the town
among them, leaving a scanty pittance to each of the
laborers. Mr. Crotty was once a Romish priest, and is
now a thorough adherent to those principles he once
denied. He certainly has done honor to the change he
has made, if the voices of his neighbors weigh anything ;
for the Catholics all spoke kindly of him as a peace-
maker, wishing to do good to all, and " given to hospi-
tality."

Roundstone, which might as well be called All-
stone, stands upon a pleasant bay, and has a strand
about two miles distant, of two miles in length, and in
some places of nearly half a mile in width, of the
finest white sand, and the most beautiful shells in the
whole island. Here I spent some hours alone, amid
the drifting of the sand, gathering shells, and endan-

CHAP, xxiv.] CO. OF GALWAY. 401

gering my eyes ; almost threatened with a burial in
the vast heaps that are piled nearly mountain high ;
my feet sinking deeply at every step. An ancient
burying ground is back of the strand, and many of
the dead bodies have been washed out, and have been
found among the sand. The poor peasants, men,
women, and children, were gathering sea-weed, load-
ing their horses, asses, and backs with it, to manure
the wretched little patches of potatoes sown among
the rocks. They walked home with me to town, some
of them with loads upon their backs which to me looked
frightful. " This," said a fair young girl, who had
rested her basket a moment upon the wall, " this is
what the good God puts on us many a long day, and
we mustn't complain." I must acknowledge I cannot
comprehend how such unnecessary, unheard-of, degrad-
ing suffering can be made to sit on young hearts like
this so uncomplainingly. Working a whole life for a
potatoe ! yes, a potatoe ! " We have them for a
rarity," said a young Irishman as he rose from his sup-
per, u we have the lumpers three hundred and sixty-five
days in a year." u A great blessing," I answered.
u The greatest curse that ever was sent on Ireland ;
and I never sit down, see, use, or eat one, but I wish
every divil of 'em was out of the island. The black-
guard of a Raleigh who brought 'em here, entailed a
curse upon the laborer that has broke his heart. Be-
cause the landholder sees we can live and work hard
on 'em, he grinds us down in our wages, and then de-
spises us because we are ignorant and ragged."

This is a pithy truth, one which I had never seen in
so vivid a light as now.

Saturday. — I left the kind Mrs. Moran, where I had
stopped, and directed my footsteps to Clifden. The
police officers, at my egress, detained me some time at
the door of the barracks, with multiplied inquiries
about America, and kind wishes for myself. As I
proceeded, the wind became so strong in my face that
walking was almost impossible. I was soon joined by
a woman going to Clifden with a heavy burden on her

402 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. xxiv.

back. " And why did ye lave Roundstone ? The peo-
ple were all waitin' to see ye on Sunday, and the hotel
keeper's wife was to keep ye a few days, for she has
been in America, and she'd like to discoorse ye, and she
knew ye'd no good place to lodge." With her heavy
burden she was soon out of sight, for she must be in Clif-
den for market. I sat down ; the gusts were so violent
in my face, that I could scarcely make my way. A man
with a loaded team met me, and said, " Ye cannot walk
with this storm in yer face ; go into the Half-way
house, and wait till I come back, and I will give ye a
ride into Clifden." He had five miles to go and unload
his team, and five miles more to return to the spot.
I went into the Half-way house, but was glad to get
again upon the street, and buffet the storm. I had
travelled fifty miles in this part of the country, and
never seen a tree or shrub, unless what was planted by
the hand of man as an ornament, and this only once.
Yet we are told that all these mountains and valleys
were once covered with trees ; that the bog-oak found
so far beneath the surface is one proof, and the turf
another.

I soon saw an old man leaning upon a staff ap-
proaching, as I supposed, to beg. " An' ye're an
American, an7 I've been hurryin' home to see ye ; an'
ye're alone, and a stranger, and my heart wawrms
towards the stranger. I've a daughter in America,
an7 I didn't hear from her these three years, an' I'd go
there to-morrow if I had the manes, if I knew I should
die in a week. This is a dreadful place, ma'am. They
are all haythens. They buried a parish priest, and
dragged him off in a common cart ; they did indeed,
ma'am ; and I beg ye to be out of this mountain,
ma'am, as soon as ye can." The old man's eloquence
increased as he proceeded. " I'm from Kilkenny, and
the people there are civilized. Oh, must my ould bones
be buried here !" I had the Testament open in my
hand, and went to a wall, and sat down. He tottered
towards me, and I said, " If you will stop, I will read
some of Christ's words to you. You are old, and if

CHAP, xxiv.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 403

you love Christ, you will soon be where he is." " Ah,
I am a sinner, lady, a great sinner, an ould sinner. But
do ye tell me ye arn't lonely on these wild mountains ?"
" I am not alone ; Christ is with me, and I hear him
say, ' Let not your heart be troubled." " And d'ye
say that Christ is with ye ! Oh, if I could say that !
Oh, if my owld heart could feel that!" I read the
14th of John in his wondering ears, while he, at every
sentence which struck him, would lift his withered
hands, exclaiming, " And is this Jesus ? Did he say
this to sinners ?" I read, and talked, and read again.
The winds had hushed, and the sun shone out, and
told me I must hasten ; I looked in the old man's face,
the tear was trembling in his dim eye ; 1 turned away.
" I have kept ye too long, ma'am ; pardon me, but my
heart wawrms towards the stranger." He tottered
away, and I heard him praying the good God to bless
the lone stranger. Never can I forget that old man of
the mountain.

Within two miles of Clifden I entered a miserable
hut, and found a company of women sitting on the
floor. The woman of the cabin said, " Are ye a
widow ?" Answering in the affirmative, " An' I'm the
same, and but one cratur in the world that belongs
to me, and she's dark, ma'am. I put her in bed a
sound child, an' she was dark in the mornin'. She's
gone to the next town. She fiddles, but her fiddle is
poor, and I can't reach money to buy her a new one."
I went out, she followed, pitying and wishing she
could do something for me. Looking me earnestly in
the face, u Would ye know me, ma'am, if ye should see
me again ? I shall want to see ye, and know how ye
do." She turned away, then called again, u God speed
ye, and give ye long life, and may I see ye again."
Hoping to hear no more tales of sorrow till I should
reach Clifden, I hurried on, but was soon accosted by
u God save ye kindly, and have ye travelled much
since I met ye ?" I looked up, and recognised the old
man with his pack, to whom I read the Scriptures on
the banks of the lake. I recollected my promise to

404 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. xxiv.

give him some books, but had none with me, and could
only say again, " Be ye warmed and be ye filled." He
bade all manner of good wishes, and hoped I should
meet his daughter in town.

I hastened to the post-office with anxiety, and found
a letter enclosing two pounds ten, with a bundle
of Bibles and tracts from the same kind clergyman
who had been ,the instrument, at my first setting out,
of getting the Bibles from the Hibernian Society. I
wept tears of gratitude, that I, a stranger in a strange
land, should be so carefully remembered. I went to
the coach-office, for though the carriage was paid
in Dublin, yet eighteen pence more was demanded, or
the books could not be given. This was another trick
played upon me by Bianconi's agents ; I paid it,
resolving never to have any more to do with his agents
or cars. I have observed throughout Ireland two
classes of men with a superabundant capital of in-
solence— post-masters, and the agents of coaches and
canal-boats. Civility seems to be lost on them, more
than on any others I met in the country. This I at-
tributed to two causes ; the hurry and perplexity of
their business, and the pride of being so exalted above
the spade, in a country where stations above the pea-
sant's lot are so enviable.

I was now almost happy. I had the prospect of
doing a little good, where so much good was needed.
The daughter of the old man I met upon the lakes
called, and modestly reminded me of the promise to
give her the Word of God. She had not forgotten
what we read together, and said she had thought much
of it since. I gave her one, offering her some tracts,
but she, too, wanted nothing but the Word of God. A
young Roman Catholic lady was lodging in the house,
and she possessed good sense and a tolerable educa-
tion. She examined the bundle of tracts, and found
some on controversial subjects. She begged me not to
offer these. " You have," said she, " done good here,
by showing to the people that you did not come
to quarrel with them about their religion, but to

CHAP, xxiv.j CO. OF GALWAY. 405

do them good, by giving such books as they might
read ; but if you circulate these, it will be said you are
like all others, and the good you have done will be lost."
This was sterling advice, and I followed it. She took
a Testament, and it was her constant companion. I
have found her reading in bed, and by the way-side.

Sabbath. — Went into the Sabbath-school, and found
the old curate and his young wife, with each a scholar
teaching. He gave us a cool rational sermon. This cu-
rate and his wife were very kind ; and the little atten-
tions they showed me left pleasant mementoes on my
mind. They invited me to tea, and asked me to play
on the piano ; they afterwards left the town, not expect-
ing to return till I should be gone, and sent me the key
of the piano, as I must, they said, be lonely, and I
might have access to it at any hour in the day.* A
Bible-reader was sick in the house where 1 lodged, and
very poor ; but rich in faith. He had labored long and
faithfully in a retired part of this desolate region, slept
upon a ground floor, and at last sank under the accumu-
lated weight of his burdens. From him I learned
much of the poverty of the country, and much did he
lament the want of vital piety in the hearts of those
who professed Christ. " I am sick," he said, " of nomi-
nal Christianity."

Monday morning. — My heart was light and buoyant,
and the young Catholic lady set off with me to Diamond
Mountain, a walk of ten miles, where we had been
invited by two police-men the Saturday previous. We
filled a basket with books, and were early on our way.
The walk was romantic, diversified with lofty moun-
tains, transparent lakes, and every variety of man,
woman, and child, that poverty could present. Women
with all kinds of burdens, doing all manner of .work ;
some shovelling sea-gravel into baskets, lifting it upon
their backs, and throwing it upon the potatoe-ridges.

* This little act of kindness said more for their true Christian
hospitality towards a stranger, than money would have done.

406 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. xxiv.

" This is hard work," I observed, " for women." " This
is our lot," answered one, " and we must do it ; but if
we had money to go to your country we wouldn't be
here." One shrewd woman said, " I wish there would
be war; then we'd have both work and money. Any-
thing for a change. 'Here we toil like dogs and beasts,
and live because the Almighty God don't call us."
This woman was daily employed at this heavy work,
for five pence a day, leaving her husband and ten chil-
dren at home, a mile from her place of labor. We
passed her cabin, and found her husband doing a little
job at coopering. Miserable, miserable huts, and rag-
ged children, so darkened the pleasant scenery of moun-
tain, lake, and river, that my morning buoyancy began
to flag a little.

On a rocky promontory of steep ascent sat a Conne-
mara woman, with a red flannel jacket and petticoat,
looking out, and a ragged girl standing near. I ran
up the rock, sat down at a little distance, and com-
menced singing. She sat mute, looking into the sea,
as if petrified; and though a boat was cheering, and
crying u Long life to you," she remained unmoved,
and when I proffered my hand, and spoke kindly, she
looked steadily, but made no attempt at speaking. We
passed down and left her, nor did she move till we had
gone from her sight. We next called at a cabin, where
a number of children had collected, to whom we gave
books. Finding they attended a school near, we entered
the school-room, and may I never see the like again.
In one corner was a pile of potatoes, kept from rolling
clown by stones, on which the ragged bare-footed chil-
dren were seated. In another corner was a pile of cart
wheels, which were used for the same purpose ; and in
the middle of the room was a circular hole made in the
ground, for the turf fire. Not a window, chair, or
bench could be seen. The pupils, with scarcely a book,
looked more like children who had sheltered themselves
there in a fright, to escape the fury of a mad animal,
or the tomahawk of some yelling savage, than those
who had assembled for the benefit of the light of

CHAP, xxiv.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 407

science. This was a Connemara school, and it was all
they could do. I had seen sprinkled all over Ireland,
schools in miserable cabins, where were huddled from
forty to seventy in a dark room without a chimney ; but
they had benches to sit upon, and their school-room
was upon the way-side, while this one was in a wet back-
yard. Those parents who are able, pay a penny a
week ; those who are not, pay nothing ; while the
wealthiest among them pay half a crown a quarter. I
saw many schools of this kind, where the child takes a
piece of turf under his arm, and goes two miles, and
sometimes three, without breakfast. In many parts of
the south, and among the mountains, they could eat but
once in the day from Christmas to the next harvest,
and this meal is generally from two to three o'clock.

We now proceeded to the police-station. Here the
wife of the sergeant treated us politely, and placed a
dinner of meat, bread, and potatoes before us ; and the
sergeant then sent two of his men to show us Diamond
Mountain, so called from having upon the top a trans-
parent stone which resembles a diamond, and is used in
breast-pins and bracelets. We waded through bog till
the ascent became difficult, and the rain poured down
without mercy. We crawled under a shelving rock, but
the furious wind sent the drops to seek us out, and we
again attempted the ascent. To me it was quite diffi-
cult, and a little dangerous, my India-rubber shoes slip-
ping, and compelling me to crawl, and support myself
by holding to the heath. Here I lost a second pair of
silver-mounted spectacles, which I used entirely for
reading, and which had served me years for that pur-
pose. I looked back to Lismore, renewed the lament
there made at the loss of my favorites, and felt that
spectacle troubles were peculiarly my lot.

The mountain was a mile high ; one of the men had
gained an eminence above us, and commenced rolling
tremendous stones down the precipice, which bounding
from hillock to hillock, from rock to rock, made a most
frightful appearance as they tore their way, splitting

408 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. xxiv.

and thundering till the mountain trembled as lay a slight
earthquake. To finish the drama, he crept upon the
highest peak of the rock, where was poised a stone of
tons weight. He gave a desperate push, and dis-
lodged it. I saw the first movement of his body and
fell upon my face, supposing man and rock were tum-
bling together. The young woman had succeeded in
reaching a shelving part of the cliff, and was holding
by some twigs. 1 ventured, as the thundering a little
ceased, to peep up, and saw her standing like a petrified
monument, her white naked feet looking like marble.
When the rock had shattered in fragments, all was still,
and the police-man called out, " I am here." I looked,
there he sat upon the frightful pinnacle, happy, as he
afterwards acknowledged, that he did not pay for his
presumption by going headlong.

The steep upon which the young woman stood was
nearly perpendicular ; she had contrived to accom-
plish the ascent by disrobing her feet, and insisted
that I should do the same, and follow her. " Here,"
she said, " you can see all the world, and all the
sea, and here, too, is a cave." I crept up with my
India-rubbers upon my feet, but so steep and so slip-
pery was it, that I could retain my position only by
holding fast to the heath. Here was a cave like a
room, with a stone in the middle for a seat, and the
roof of square stones as if laid by the hand of man.
It seemed impossible that this could be the work of
nature, yet what monk or chieftain could carry up his
food and his water, and subsist upon the mountain ?
It was a proud height. A mile were we sitting, or
rather hanging, above the level where we commenced,
and the sea and earth seemed spread beneath us. The
presumptuous man kept his position, looking at the
crumbling fragments, and said he well nigh lost his
balance, and was shocked at his own bold exploit. We
could not reach the diamonds. The rain was pouring,
and how to descend was the question. The bare-
footed girl could keep her hold, while my slippery rub-
bers exposed me at every step to a long slide which

CHAP, xxiv.] CO. OF GALWAY. 409

might be fatal. But by sitting down and sliding where
walking was impossible, I succeeded in reaching a cabin
near the bottom, in time to secure a couple of roasted
potatoes-, which the adventurous policeman and girl had
prepared from a heap in the corner, where was a fire,
and a little girl only to keep it.

We reached the barracks, leaving the diamonds to
sparkle at a distance, as all diamonds generally do. But
a kind lady gave me some fine specimens which were
gathered from the rock, and nothing now remained
but to compose my mind with the loss of the spec-
tacles, and a breast pin of Killarney curiosity in ad-
dition.

A good fire and pot of potatoes dried our clothes and
filled our mouths ; and now for the lodging. The po-
liceman had promised to secure this, but deferred it till
night, when we had no time for choosing. And if the
compassionate reader has been touched by our mountain
adventure, let his sympathy follow us to the lobby at
least of our resting-place.

As the policeman led us to the door, " You will as
usual," he said, u find cattle in the room, but you will
have a clean bed.'' Ah, the poor hapless girl and my-
self tested that bed ! We entered the house, two cows
were lying and chewing their cud, and a horse capari-
soned with a straw saddle taking his supper. The
mistress was sitting on a stone projecting from the
chimney, her head up the pipe of it, smoking. She
could lodge us " right well," and we were shown into
the room, our feet sticking upon the floor, which when
damp is like pitch and tar. We instantly committed
ourselves to our fate. The father and mother soon joined
us, and men, women, and boys, were in an almost open
loft over our heads.

Daylight did certainly dawn ; we rose in good time,
paid our bill, and said good morning to the mistress,
leaving her in the same spot where we found her, and
at the same employment, with her cows and horse by her
side.

Tully was the next destined post, without breakfast,
18

410 CO. OP GALWAY. [CHAP. xxiv.

Wind and rain confronted us at every step ; we called
at the cabins when we could not help it, and cer-
tainly they were among the miserable. It was twelve
when we reached Tully. I had gone suppeiiess to
bed, and passed a sleepless night, and walked through
mud and rain till twelve, and now felt the need of
food. To our sad disappointment, not a loaf of
bread was in the town, and the good Methodist lady
where we stopped said there had been none for six
weeks ! Can you believe, who may read this, that
in 1845, when there had been no failure of crops, an
assize town with tasty-looking houses lived six weeks
on nothing but potatoes ! An old man kept a shop
with a little flour, but so rare was the call for it
that he was out of town most of the time, leaving
his door locked. He returned that day, so that by two
o'clock my hunger was a little calmed by a soda cake.
We then visited the National School, taught by the
son of the woman where we stopped, and found it un-
der good regulations. The teacher had a salary of
twelve pounds a year.

We walked out of town ; stopped at a cabin where a
Catholic old man, who had been a sailor, kept us too
long ; for so powerful was the effluvia from various kinds
of filth of cabin and cattle, that the girl, though used
to such places, became nauseated, turned pale, and was
faint. We gladly got out into the fresh air, but the
girl was quite ill for an hour. We sought a decent
house, found a decent bed, and paid a decent price, and
took a breakfast of potatoes with the good Methodist
woman. Walked back, and took a second tour on Dia-
mond Mountain for the spectacles, all unavailing, and
we returned to Clifden, certainly wiser than we were
three days before, and I was certainly poorer. The
next morning for Omey.

At an early hour I set off from Clifden (the capital)
to visit this island, the distance of seven miles. Reach-
ing a village of the most ancient kind, such as houses
of stone, constructed like a loose stone wall, without
gable ends — some with tops like a bee-hive, or inverted

CHAP, xxiv.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 411

basket — some with holes for smoke to ascend, and some
•with no way for its escape but through the door ; I se-
lected one of the largest dimensions, knowing that there
would be a full turn-out from every cabin and potatoe-
field in sight arid hearing. I was not disappointed. As
if by magic, in a few moments every neighboring cabin
was vacated, the hill-side and bog had not a foot to
tread them — every spade was dropped, and in a few
moments the ground of the cabin was literally packed
with men, women, and children, in rags and tatters —
some with hair erect, and some with caps, and some with
hats, but more with none. In one solid mass they all
sat down upon their haunches, and began their wel-
comes to Ireland, and their wonder that so "goodly a
body should leave so fine a country to see such a poor
people ;" my polka coat, my velvet bonnet, and all that
outwardly appertained to me passed in review. Taking
out a tract, I read a little, while they wondered at my
" plain spache," and thanked God that they had seen
such a devotee, going, as they supposed, on penance.
" And sure ye must be hungry — and such a dacent body
wouldn't ait a potatoe." Assuring them I was not hun-
gry, they all rose and joined in one universal valedic-
tory of, u God bless ye, and speed ye on yer journey."
One woman followed me out, and begged me to turn
into her cabin and take an egg ; I told her that I was
greatly obliged that she should show me so much kind-
ness, but 1 must hasten to secure a walk across the
strand before the tide should set in.

1 crossed the strand, and reached an island a mile
in diameter, of one rude pile of stone, with a little
patch now and then of green, without a road, the
foot-paths being so obscured by sand blown in from
the beach, that guess-work was my only guide. Here
were huts, some of stone, and some of mud ; and here,
too, were habitations dug in the sand, as rabbits bur-
row, and whole families live therein ; an aperture to
crawl in admits the inmates, serving as door, window,
and chimney ;. on the ground straw is spread, which

412 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. xxiv.

serves for table, bed, and chair. At each end of this
island live the owners, called " lords."

The miseries of that island must be seen to be be-
lieved. I went into a hut, and found a family about
drawing their stools around a basket of potatoes.
They received me with much urbanity, made sensible
inquiries of my country, and spoke of the good she
had done to poor Ireland. Seeing that their dinner
was cooling, I said, "your potatoes look quite tempt-
ing, sir ; may I take one ?" u Take one !" said the
delighted wife, " would ye ate one?" The man added,
" I was ashamed, ma'am, to be seen aitin' 'em while
you was in. This is a dry bit, without milk or butter,
ma'am, and yer country never ait like this.'' " Can
you read?" I asked. UI could once, ma'am, but my
eyes are grown dim." I handed him a tract, and he
read tolerably ; went out, and called his son to choose
one from my bundle for himself, as I had given him the
privilege. They had selected the finest potatoes forme,
and toasted them upon the coals. They had two guests
besides; a beggar, and a friend of their own, and all
had a scanty dinner but myself. The guests would not
eat till I was well supplied, and the poor man did not
make a comfortable meal, and this was the only meal
for the day.

The son was sent to show me the path to Lady

M , and, wading ancle-deep in sand, I made my

way to it, and found an entrance into the kitchen.
The lady had gone to Clifden, and the floorless room
was a deposit for calves, pigs, hens, and ducks. Two
servants were sitting on the hearth, and handing
one a tract, which had a red cover, the scene that
followed I better felt than my tongue or pen can de-
scribe. The girl went out, and in a few minutes the
dilapidated door, with a tremendous noise, was burst
open, pouring in a host of men, boys, and girls, who
were employed planting potatoes ; and they with one
consent pounced upon me, demanding books, and they
must be red ones. Begging them to be quiet, and I
would make an equal distribution (having about fifty

CHAP, xxiv.] CO. OF GALWAY. 413

with me) — they would hear to none of this, but rummag-
ed my basket, demanding an entrance into my pocket,
all clamoring at once, some in Irish, and others in brok-
en English, while the servant girl stood aghast. A man
more manageable than the rest, who had entered before
the mob, and had been reading a tract, declared to
them that the books were u dacent," and that they were
blackguards ; and after I had given the only one in my
possession, he succeeded by physical force to drag them
out of the house — such as were dragable, while the oth-
ers took their own time and own way. I made off, with
an apology from the servant, that she could give me no-
thing to eat, as all was " locked up."

My next depot was to be at the extremity of the
island, where lived the other "lady." She, too, was_
out ; but I was admitted into the kitchen, and had a
quiet survey of what was passing there. Here I counted
sixty-three living and moving beings, quadruped and
biped, besides such as walked erect — a kennel of dogs,
three coops for hens, chickens and ducks, a calf or two,
a pen of young pigs, a fold of sheep and lambs, and an
able-bodied goat — these all walked and talked each
his own language, with no pugnacious symptoms ; and
if the " lion and lamb did not lie down together," the
goat and lamb did.

But the " lady," — she entered with a goodly-looking
daughter of fifteen, both attired in long linen coats,
with respectable tails reaching nearly to the ground,
worn by the father and brother. They passed through
in dignified silence, and in a moment the lady returned,
saying, " Come down to the parlor." I went down to
the parlor, and here was a ground floor, a dirty-look-
ing bed, a few wooden-bottom chairs, and a table by
the wall, with one leaf turned up, and a platter of po-
tatoes and a cup of milk. " Will you take some din-
ner :" I did not decline, for I was hungry, and a long
walk before me, and the tide not yet out, and the sun
was set. The lady was young-looking and handsome,
and the mother of sixteen hopefuls, was rich, and rode
out to Clifden, giving great dinners in the city, and

414 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. xxiv.

on the island, assimilating herself to the society around
her.

Eight o'clock, the tide was said to be out, and I had
a strand of a mile to cross, and six miles to Clifden then
before me. A boy was sent to show me the shortest
course, and when I had nearly reached the strand, a
girl called out, u The mistress says may be you'll come
back, and stop all night." A strange oversight, my
pride answered, that this invitation was not given be-
fore. I thanked the child and went on, quite to my
disadvantage. Midway the strand in the sea was quite
deep : I waded in and stood demurring ; the night was
dark, and to find a passage out seemed impossible. I
turned back, and made my way to the "lady's;" she
then made a shrewd investigation of the cause of my
visit. Looking at her altogether, her savage living, her
ragged dress, and pretence to high rank, I was disgust-
ed to find myself at the option of such an " out of the
way affair," and I told her plainly I came to Ireland
because I had a right to come ; that they were daily
sending loads of beggared and abused emigrants to us,
and I had come to see how and what they could be at
home ; and making the application to her own kitchen,
she understood me when 1 said, u I have seen, and am
satisfied." She was rebuked, and treated me with un-
common attention through the evening. She gave me
a clean bed, in a floorless room, a cup of milk by my
side to drink in the night, and in the morning present-
ed me with a dish of potatoes, and was sorry she had
no bread ; declining the potatoes, I walked the seven
miles without eating, and was much enriched by what I
had seen.

My way home was intricate. I found myself en-
tangled in rocks, after crossing the strand, and was a
full hour climbing and creeping to get out. I at last
found the road, and the village where I stopped the
preceding day, and had another meeting. One woman
among them had been bred in Galway, and invited me
into her cabin, which though dark was cleanly, and
remarked that Connemara had greatly improved in

CHAP, xxv.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 415

the last twenty years. That then their time was spent
in the most degrading vicious manner that could be
imagined ; the can of whiskey was carried from cabin
to cabin, and whole days and nights spent in glee and
drunkenness ; and their persons, their cabins, and their
beds so filthy that they were intolerable to all but them-
selves. I assured her the latter was now the case
throughout Ireland, so far as I had travelled ; and were
it not that they were God's creatures, made in his image,
and bound to his tribunal, I would say of many of them,
"He that is filthy let him be filthy still," before I
would risk my eyes, my nose, or my garments within
gallopping distance of their multitudinous disgusting
unmentionables. " No hope," she sighed, u for poor
Ireland!" Glad was I to see Clifden, having eaten
scarcely three ounces of food since I left it.

CHAPTER XXV.

Misfortune in Clifden — Reverse of Fortune — An Aged Pilgrim— Eager Listeners
— Visit to a Dying Man — GJorious Sunset — An officious Policeman — Lady
Clare — Arrival in Galway — Obtrusiveness of the Women — A Sermon on Bap-
tism— Journey to Westport — Introduction to Mr. Poundon — A devoted Pres-
byterian Minister — Sketch of a Christian Missionary, such as Ireiaiid needs —
Croagh Patrick — Hazardous Ascent to the Mountain — Grand Prospect from
the Summit— Return to Westporfc— Doubts Removed— Filial Affection— A
Poor Protestant.

Saturday morning, while across the street speaking
to a blind man, my purse was robbed of three half
crowns and a few pennies, by a little servant girl,
•who had seen me take out some, and run out in haste,
leaving my purse and bag upon my bed. Clifden was
an unfortunate spot for me. A pair of new gloves
had been taken the day previous, my spectacles and
breast-pin lost, and now my money. Went out and
visited schools, found one in miserable plight, crowd-
ed, dirty, and noisy, and the teacher in keeping with
the whole. A second was a well ordered one, the

416 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. xxv.

teacher a man of sense as well as learning. A family
who opened a boarding school, invited me to pass a
few days in their house, and I found them with
the remains of a ruined fortune, struggling to educate
their own children by teaching others. A class x>f peo-
ple quite plentiful throughout Ireland are those who
once were in higher life, and are now struggling to keep
their hold of the crazy boat. But those are generally
found to be the better sort of society ; having been
schooled in affliction, they have felt the uncertainty of
all earthly calculations, and by intercourse with the en-
lightened class of the community, they have acquired
knowledge and habits which make them interesting,
and often useful acquaintances. Their pride at the same
time has been so wounded, that, if not humbled effectu-
ally, they are more condescending and more communi-
cative to such as are below them.

In the family where I lodged resided the mother of
the mistress of the house, and she was a character
worthy of a place in a better journal than mine. She
had seen more than four-score years, yet her intellect
was clear, and though infirm, not peevish ; cleanly and
attractive in her person. By her bed-side I passed
many a pleasant hour, reading to her attentive mind
the Word of God. One evening, after reading, she
added, " What blessed words ! what blessed words !
and may I ask you what you think of the Virgin ?'?
I told her, and added, as I have ever done, the reason
why I do not worship her ; " because God had not
enjoined it;" and then read the 18th and 19th verses
of the last chapter of Revelations. She exclaimed,
" O my God ! what have I done if this be true ? what
have I done ? God have mercy on me." She con-
tinued this for some time, .she wept, and prayed that
God might forgive her ; and during my stay, whenever
she heard my footsteps in an adjoining room, she would
inquire if I were coming in, and if I would read, still
continuing the lamentation about the blessed Virgin.
" What shall I do ! what shall I do !" she often asked,
and was as often told to go to Jesus ; and I believe she
did go.

CHAP, xxv.] CO. OP GALWAY. 417

Sabbath. — I spent five hours reading by the side of
her bed, and was surrounded with a roomful of the
most attentive hearers, in great admiration — so much
so, it was often difficult to proceed. I read a tract on
the operation of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, and an
aged man sitting by exclaimed, u Blessed Jesus, who
ever haird the like ! I'm an ould man, and never before
knew rightly what was the meaning of the Holy Ghost.
Did ye ever ?" he said to the listeners. " No, no,"
was the united answer. The chapel bell was sounding
every liour, when one said, "We hav'n't been to mass
this mornin'." " And hav'n't we haird more than we
should there ? The like of this raidin' we shouldn't
hear in many a day's walk." I was obliged to close,
five hours of constant reading and talking affected my
voice, and I could only commend them to God, and say
adieu for ever. As they lingered, blessing and thank-
ing me, one said, " Aw, no mass was ever like this, I
could be listenin' till the mornin'." These people are
asking to be fed, and their ears are open to instruction;
but the little facility of reading which the adults
possess puts it out of their power to attain much infor-
mation, and their extreme poverty prevents their giving
an advanced education to their children.

Thursday, May 15th. — Prepared to depart, gave all
the farewells to the family, and while the trembling
hand of the old lady to whom I had read so much
pressed mine, her still more trembling voice said,
u The Almighty God be with ye, and I do believe we
shall meet in heaven." I felt grateful to God that I
had met this old pilgrim, and cheered her a little on her
passage to the grave. She knew, she felt, that she was
on the confines of the eternal world, and her only de-
sire was thab Christ would be glorified in her, and fit
her to depart in peace. Mrs. M., her daughter, and
the young woman who accompanied me to Tully, went
out with me a mile on my way, and we called at a cabin
to see a sick woman, who the day previous was present
at the long reading. I was now obliged to say adieu to
my companions and Clifden for ever. It was painful
IS*

418 CO. OF GALWAY. [CHAP. xxv.

to leave the interesting girl, who had seen better days
in the life-time of her father, and is now destitute of
those means of acquiring that instruction which she is
so anxious to obtain.

Galway was my destination, and I ascended a car of
the common kind, in company with a young married
woman, and Win. Keane, the good man who had offered
me a ride from the Roundstone at the Half-way house.
He had a noble heart, and some refinement of manner.
I begged to stop at the cabin of the kind man who gave
me a lodging on the bundle of straw. Mr. K. went to
the door, and called him. He crept out, tottering, to
the road, a handkerchief about his head ; his pale face,
his bright eye, and husky voice telling that consumption
was consuming his vitals. " I can get no good here,
ma'am, and plaise God I shall go back to Tralee, if the
good God don't take me away." I presented him a
Testament, telling him it was the good book I read to
him when there. " An' God bless ye, and warn't ye a
blessin' to me when in my cabin, and I can do nothing
to pay ye." I gave the children some books, and as he
turned away, he spoke in a low tone to Mr. K., "Take
care of that woman ; she's a blessin' to Ireland. She
was a blessin' to me ; and God I know will bless her."
This was too much, when I had been so hospitably shel-
tered from the storm at his expense. It was I who had
received the blessing, and as 1 saw him slowly creep to
his cabin, and knew that he must soon stand disem-
bodied before his judge, 1 prayed that the good seed
sown in his heart might spring up to eternal life.

We called at Mr. Steely's, where I stayed on my way
to Clifden ; stopped long enough to roast me a couple
of potatoes, and distribute a few tracts. Then passed
the pleasant lakes where I read to the old man and his
daughter. It was a sunny day, and the mountain and
lake scenery was exceedingly beautiful. We reached
the Protestant family where I had promised to leave
some books, and was entreated to spend a night with
them, but could not. " She is the loveliest woman,"
said Mr. Keene, when we had gone out, " that ever

CUAP. xxv.] CO. OF GAL WAY. 419

lived on these wild mountains. She's a Christian." He
was a Catholic, yet her godly example convinced him
that she was a follower of Christ.

It was now about sun-setting, and the ride to Oute-
rard was more than interesting. Such a sun-setting
and such a twilight by sea or by land I never beheld.
When the sun sank behind the mountain, he left a scal-
loped edge of gold, leaving the lofty peaks below tinted
with the richest blue. The sky, the lakes, and the curl-
ing smoke from the cabins upon the sides of the moun-
tains, where the poor peasants had built their evening
fires to boil their potatoes, — the rustics returning from
labor, or from the market at Outerard, — the crescent
moon looking out as if modestly waiting to do what she
could when the sun should retire, made a scene of the
liveliest and loveliest interest.

I almost regretted reaching the town of Outerard,
but here found pleasant accommodations, and in the
morning passed out to walk through the town while the
car was getting ready. A policeman stepped up, "Are
ye Lady Clare, ma'am ?'' " I am not Lady Clare, sir,
but Mrs. N. from New York." " From New York !
and what brought you here ?" " To see you, sir, and
the rest of the good people of Ireland." " To see me,
ah ! and you know it's my duty to inquire of every sus-
picious person that comes along what their business is."
u Indeed, sir ! every suspicious person ! And is it your
duty to ask every person who passes peaceably through
your country what his business is, and to give an ac-
count of himself ?" "It is, ma'am." "Then you
have duties which no other policeman understands, for
I have travelled a great part of Ireland, and the police-
officers have treated me with the greatest kindness."
He turned away, went to the sergeant, and asked him if
he should arrest me. The officer told him no, to be off
about his business ; and the woman who accompanied
me lectured him so severely for " tratin' a dacent body
so," telling him he was " a saucy red-head," that he
walked away, silenced, if not ashamed.

This Lady Clare I was told, some twelve years ago,

420 CO. OF GAL WAY. [CHAP. xxv.

was a gentleman in disguise, who went about the coun-
try, inducing the laboring people to swear they would
not work for less than a stipulated sum, much greater
than present wages, with sundry advantages beside.
And if the landlord refused compliance, they would
turn out in the night, and dig up his meadows, so that
he would be compelled to till them. This game it was
said was now in operation in Clare, and the newly ini-
tiated policeman, hearing I had come to visit the poor,
determined to show his loyalty to government by bring-
ing the lady before it in due season.

We reached Galway, and I felt more inclined to be
home-sick than in any place I had before been. I took
a different, lodging from my old one, but found no im-
provement ; and was terribly annoyed by the Galway
women following me from street to street, from alley to
alley, fixing their full unblinking eyes upon me. Their
ngly teeth, their red petticoats, and repulsive manners
made them second to none, even the Connaught cordu-
roys, in all that was to be dreaded.

Sabbath Day. — I went in search of a Methodist cha-
pel ; a young man generously offered to show the way,
and I found myself seated in a gallery in a Catholic
one. It was late, and the sermon on baptism had
commenced. A good exhortation was given to pa-
rents to train their children faithfully in the fear of
God. The sermon was closed by particular direc-
tions how to baptize effectually, should any layman be
called, on a special emergency, to perform the rite.
We were told emphatically to remark, that in pro-
nouncing the name of the Trinity, if each distinct
person in the Godhead were not spoken or named
with great slowness and distinctness, the baptism would
be good for nothing. This was repeated, that each
might be enlightened, and all faithfully enjoined not to
forget it. At evening I visited the Protestant Sabbath-
school, and listened to a lady explaining the lessons to
her pupils, who showed much knowledge of the Scriptures,
and appeared to be deeply impressed with their value
herself.

Monday, May 27th. — I took the car to Westport, a

CHAP, xxv.] CO. OF MAYO. 421

distance of fifty miles. Stopped while the horses were
changing, and asked for a penny's worth of bread and
a potatoe. The bread was brought, but was quite sour ;
they had no potatoes. Asked for a little milk, a girl
went to the cow, and with unwashed hands milked a
few spoonfuls into a tea-cup, and presented it fresh
from the mint. I refused the filthy-looking beverage,
took a halfpenny's worth of the sour bread, and asked
for my bill. " Sixpence," was the* answer. A York
shilling for a cent's worth of bread ! " A good profit,''
I said. They paid back three-pence. I found in most
hotels in Galway and Kerry, what I had not met so
much elsewhere, a disposition to take the. most they
could get, however extravagant the sum.

A few hours brought us to Westport. The coach-
man provided me a wholesome lodging-place. The
next day being sunny, I enjoyed a treat, walking
alone over the shady grounds of Lord Sligo, by the
side of pleasant water, with all the etceteras of a
gentleman's demesne who lived for pleasure. He had
died a few months before, leaving his great estate to a
son who follows his steps. — " Whatsoever a man
soweth that shall he also reap." A monument erected '
by the citizens to his agent, in honor of his benevo-
lence, is a pleasing testimonial of gratitude, and says
that there is a capability in the Irish heart, even
among the most degraded and poor, to reciprocate
kindness, and a quick perception of justice when
exercised towards them. On my return, called into a
Protestant school, conducted like all parochial schools
in the country, and by the teacher was introduced to
Mr. Poundon, the rich rector, whose estate and splen-
dor, I was informed, were not much inferior to those of
Lord Sligo. From him I ascertained that considerable
had been done for schools, and the spreading of the
Scriptures among the poor ; and I was told by others
that he is a man of benevolence, improving the con-v
dition of many around him. My next call was to
the house of a Scotch Presbyterian, named Smith. I
mention his name because I delight to dwell upon it ;

422 CO. OF MAYO. [CHAP. xxv.

the remembrance of those u mercy-drops" in the desert,
where I was often hungry and thirsty, is pleasant to
the soul. His wife, who is of a good family in
England, received and welcomed me with all that
Christian courtesy that made me feel myself at home
among kind friends. Something was immediately
brought me to eat, and presented in that manner
and abundance that said, u you will oblige me great-
ly by partaking unsparingly." Reader, did you ever
eat a slice of the " bread of covetousness ?" I assure
you I have, and it is bitter, sour, indigestible, and
quite unfit for a healthy stomach. This was not such
bread.

This family's benevolence was on the lips of all the
poor in the vicinity ; though with a stinted salary,
that salary is divided among the children of want,
till, as I was informed, oftentimes a scanty supply
is left for their own necessities. Would to God, Ire-
land could boast many more such among the full-fed,
over-paid clergy of the country. Here I found a de-
voted, active, efficient Bible reader, with a salary of
thirty pounds a year, who goes from house to house
among all classes, and explains the Word of God to
those who have not access to it. He met in most cases
with a kind reception, and why ? Because he went
with the love of God in his heart, and talked of this
love ; held up Christ and him crucified, which is all
the sinner needs. If love will not melt the flinty heart,
will bitterness do it ? I truly believe that the Word
of God would not only have been received with wil-
lingness, but sought after by the greater part of the
peasantry of Ireland, had it been presented with no
sectarian denunciations, and had all the teachers, like
this one, been humble, self-denying, and kindly. It is
a most important item in the qualification of teachers,
that they understand human nature in its various de-
velopements. It is not enough that they can pronounce
well, elevate and depress the voice according to the
rules of punctuation, expatiate on the eloquence of St.
Paul, or the sin of Ananias. They should know well

CHAP, xxv.j CO. OF MAYO. 423

not only the broad avenues to the heart, but the nar-
row streets ; yes, and every repulsive forbidden alley.
They should know, too, the time of day when these
paths can most prudently and easily be trodden. There
is not a heart but has its waxings and wanings ; there
is not a temperament but has its ebbings and Sowings ;
and, like the skilful mariner, they should know where
to cast anchor, and when to trim the sails. They
should know when in deep water, and when near shoals
and quicksands. In travelling the entire coast of Ire-
land, I needed not to see a Bible-reader, to know his
abilities or faithfulness. The Irish peasantry have an
uncommonly just conception of propriety and impropri-
ety, right and, wrong, benevolence and covetousness.
A dabster at his trade, or a filthy-lucre laborer is quick-
ly discerned.

" Lay not careless hands," &c.

I was now in the vicinity of the celebrated moun-
tain, where we are told St. Patrick stood, when he
banished the venomous serpents from the island. Its
lofty sharp peak, at a distance, towering to the skies,
looked as if it could scarcely afford breadth for more
than one foot at a time. But here we are told the
holy saint stood, and here we are shown the prints of
his knees where he prayed. Here, too, is an altar for
worship, and here the inhabitants of the adjacent
parishes assemble yearly, at an early hour, on the last
Friday in July, to perform what they call stations.
Multitudes are seen climbing the difficult and danger-
ous ascent, from the town of Westport, to mingle with
fellow pilgrims from other parts ; to go nine times
around a pile of stones, call their sins to remembrance,
ask forgiveness, and promise better lives in future.
A sprightly young girl I had met on the path offered
to accompany me at an early hour to the mountain.
I called at her door and knocked ; the girl was asleep,
and I passed on. A country school-master soon ac-
costed me, and learning who I was, walked a mile with
me, to give a history of his school and country. Like

424 CO. OF MAYO. [CHAP. xxv.

most country school-teachers, he had become acquaint-
ed with the hearths of all the domestic domiciles in his
parish ; and to appearance he could rival Goldsmith's
controversialist : —

" For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still."

He told me it would be presumptuous to attempt the
ascent of the mountain alone, and begged me not to
think of it. " You will be lost, and never find your way ;
and should any accident befal you, no one could know
it, and you would perish alone." This was all good
sense, and I was more than mad that I did not heed
it. Reaching the foot of the mountain, a cabin woman
met me, and offered her bright lad as a guide, for any
trifle that the lady might plase to give. I offered as a
trial two pence half-penny, for 1 did not intend taking
a guide if possible to avoid it. " Oh, he shall not go
for that ; but as you are a lone solitary cratur, he shall
go chaper than he ever did, and that's for a six-pence."
I happily got rid of the annoyance in this way, and
heard, after passing the door, " She'll be destroyed."
I went on, and inquired of another the best path. A
man answered, u And do ye think ye could reach the
top alone ? no mortal bein' could do it. But one man
ever did it, and then declared he wouldn't do the like
again for all the parish. But I have as sprightly a
little gal as is in all the country, who will show ye every
inch." I made the same offer as to the woman, and re-
ceived the same answer, and I found him willing to run
the risk of having me killed, which he assured me must
be the case, rather than lend me a guide for a trifle. I
mention these two cases, as the only ones I now recol-
lect in all Ireland, who refused me a favor for a small
equivalent.

Jt was now two o'clock : three Irish miles from the
main road was the top of the mountain said to be. I
looked up, the sun was shining, the air was breezy, my
strength and spirits were good, and why should I hesi-
tate, when I had so many times in Ireland done more
out-of-the-way " impossibilities ?" I went on, but

CHAP, xxv.] CO. OF MAYO. 425

soon was lost in miry bog, and intricate windings of
deceitful paths, for two hours. At last I lost a beauti-
ful Testament, which had been my companion for many
a mile ; and when looking for that, a man called out,
" Ye ar'n't thinkin' ye can go up the mountain to-
night ? Darkness '11 be on ye before ye reach the top,
and ye'll perish there. Go home, and some long day
bring a friend with ye. Ye're out of the path ; the
fowls might pick yer bones upon this mountain, and
not a h'porth be haird about it." This looked a little
discouraging, and I sat down to consider. I looked up
at the dizzy height above, then at the sun ; thought
what a prospect I should have at the top, of the beau-
tiful islands, the sea, and the lakes under my feet ; and
I made the fruitless effort to find the path. It was a
fearful undertaking, and I record it not as a proof of
valor or wisdom ; it was the height of folly, if not
recklessness. By crawling and pulling, a little was
gained, till a-hcad I saw a white track, taking a cir-
cuitous 'route around a smaller mountain, which was
to lead to the great one in view. I reached it and sat
down ; the prospect here was beautiful, was grand. I
solaced my eyes, and endeavored to make up my
mind that this would answer without proceeding. But
this could not satisfy me. I was in Ireland, on the
side of one of its loftiest and most celebrated moun-
tains, and though a dangerous ascent, yet younger and
older feet had reached the top, and what others had
done I could do. But I was alone, and the hour was
late. What if some joint should be dislocated, or I
should stumble and go headlong ? I might suffer days,
and die at last unheeded. " I will go a few yards more
and then stop." The few yards were attained. I sat
down and said, u Am I tempting my Maker ?" A little
refreshed, and another point was gained, till a dizzy and
almost perpendicular steep, with white round stones for
a path — which had been washed by water till a channel
was formed, in which lay these stones — was my only
road. I made a desperate effort, crawling and holding
by the heath where I could, till almost exhausted, I

426 CO. OF MAYO. [CHAP. xxr.

ventured to look again, and saw a large pile of stones
upon the top, and knew they must be the stations
around which the devotees performed their penances.
Another effort, and my feet stood upon the grand pin-
nacle.

The first sight was so picturesque and dazzling, I sup-
posed my eyes were deceiving me, that the almost su-
pernatural exertion had dimmed the true vision, and
false images were flitting before them. Not so. A
true map of the most beautiful varied finish was be-
neath me. Hundreds, yes, thousands of feet below me,
were spread out lakes and islands in the ocean. Fifty
islands I counted upon my right hand, bordered with
various colors, some fringed with sand, and some with
gravel, some with grass reaching to the water's edge.
On the left was the bold island of Clare, looking like
some proud king over all the rest. The sun was shin-
ing in full slendor, giving to all the appearance
of a fairy land. The top of the mountain is oblong,
and so narrow, that, had the wind been violent, I
should have feared that I could not retain my footing, for
the descent on every hand was almost perpendicular.

Here is an ancient pile of stones, and a kind of altar,
on which the prints of St. Patrick's knees are shown,
which he wore in the stone by constant kneeling.
Here, by some mystical virtue or power, he banished
all the serpents ; and whether, like the devils which
entered into the herd of swine, these serpents had the
privilege of entering into some other animals, or into
men, certain it is that they do not show themselves in
any tangible shape in Ireland. The sun was declining.
I sang, and called to the inhabitants below ; but they
neither answered nor heard me. The descent was now
the difficulty. There was another and safer path upon
the other side, but this I did not know, and the fright-
ful road was undertaken. One misstep of my slippery
Indian rubbers, one rolling of a stone upon which I was
obliged to step, would have plunged me headlong.
I felt my dependence, yet my nerve was steady. I
trembled not, nor was I fearful ; yet I felt that the cau-

CHAP, xxv.] CO. OF MAYO. 427

tions given by the schoolmaster and others near the
mountain were no fictions. The sun had not two hours
to shine upon the pinnacle, and I on its slippery side,
nearly three miles from the abode of men. God's
mercy never to me was more conspicuous than when I
found myself unhurt at the bottom, for this mercy was
shown me in my greatest presumption. I was not
going here to see the poor, to instruct the ignorant, or
to do good to any child of want. I went to gratify
a desire to see the marvellous, and in the face and
eyes of all kind caution to the contrary. I pray God
I may never be so presumptuous again. When I
reached the cabin where the boy was refused, I told the
mother that had she sent him, I should have paid him
well ; but when I found her great concern for my safety
was only to make a shilling, I would give him nothing.
She immediately brought forth a plate of potatoes and a
fish in return for my lecture, without a reproachful
word, put them on a chair before me, and I ate a pota-
toe and went home to Westport, fatigued, yet happy
that I had seen what I had, and had accomplished a feat
which I was told neither man nor woman could accom-
plish alone.

The next day a fair was held in Westport. Nothing
new or interesting marked the occasion. The people
in and about the town are tolerably tidy-looking pea-
santry, and though they could not wholly refrain from
staring at me, yet I was not in that imminent danger of
being swallowed alive, that seemed to threaten me in
Galway. Another pleasant call at Mr. Smith's made
the day pass profitably. He invited me into his place
of worship, which was near his house, and while there
I had occasion to speak of a clergyman in Dublin who
was a friend of Mr. Smith, and from whom I had just
received a letter. I read the letter to him ; he seemed
pleased, as if a doubt had been loosened but not remov-
ed respecting my good character and intentions. Paus-
ing a moment, he said, " And is that letter from my
friend ? Let me seethe handwriting." He took a letter
from the same clergyman out of his pocket-book, coin-

428 CO. OF MAYO. [CHAP. xxv.

pared the writing, and seeing there was actually no for-
gery, he was apparently much gratified.

I was more pleased with the good man now than be-
fore ; for though he had not intimated by a word that
he was jealous of my real character, nor did I let him
know that I understood his doubts about the letter,
yet I now saw he had been vacillating ; and notwith-
standing, had he known me to be a saint, he could not
have treated me more kindly in word and action than
he had done. Though his Scotch caution whispered that
he must be upon the watch-tower against deceivers, yet
he was " careful to entertain strangers" until he proved
that they were not impostors.

The next morning I had hoped to visit the island of
Clare, a distance of fourteen miles, but was disappointed
in getting a boat, and turned my steps through a beau-
tiful wood on LordSligo's estate. Haifa mile took me
to a house, out of which came a mother, two daughters,
and a grand-daughter of six years old. This child's
mother was in America, and had been gone nearly four
years ; but so indelibly fixed was the mother in the mind
of the child, that every woman that is a stranger she
hopes may be the one she ardently desires to see.
When she found I was from America, it was affecting
to see the imploring look she cast upon me. The mo-
ther bade her daughter to accompany me through the
wood, telling the grand-daughter to go into the house.
The child obeyed, but we soon heard her in pursuit.
She plucked the bluebell and primrose, and presented
them to me ; broke great boughs from the hawthorn,
and filled my hands ; looking with such a winning
confidence into my face, that I wished her away. She
followed me to the cabin where I stopped, and for
three hours sat near me ; her aunt could not persuade
her to return, neither could I, but by giving her a look ;
and then she lingered and looked after me till she
could see me no more. I found myself surrounded by
a group of listeners, all Protestants. One aged man,
who had renounced Popery, entered, and the meekness
of his appearance distinguished him from the ordinary

CHAP, xxvi.] CO. OF MAYO. 429

Christian. He was truly " meek and lowly." I pre-
sented him an Irish Testament, which he could read
well, and he received it with the greatest gratitude.
Reader, he was a beggar, going from cabin to cabin to
ask his potatoe ; one of the members of Christ's body,
and a member of a rich Protestant church ! Here
was Christ presenting himself; and they all recognised
him as a rare example ; yet they sent him, poorly clad,
hungry, and weary, from door to door — asking for what ?
A potatoe ! Look at this, ye proud professed disciples
of the Lord Jesus, and say, " What will ye do in the
end thereof?"

I found these cabiners warm-hearted, and a tidy in-
dustrious people. The poor widow where I first stop-
ped supported a family by weaving, working from sun
to sun for ten-pence a day at the loom. I was escorted
through the neighborhood, invited to stay all night,
and in the evening read to both Catholics and Protes-
tants. The hearing of the ear is certainly given in
these places, if not the understanding of the heart. I
blessed God, after I passed away, that I had fresh
proof that all was not lost that was done for these poor
people.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Sunday Sermons— Newport— A. Relic of Better Days— Arrival at Achill Sound,
and Kind Reception from Mr. Savage and his Family — Visit to the Colony —
Mr. Wangle's Protestant Missionary Settlement — Molly Vesey's Lodgings —
Visit to the Schools at the Colony— Walk to the Keem Mountains— A Cente-
narian— The Amethyst Quarries — The Author's Acknowledgments and Cen-
sures Explained — Mr. Nangle's Weekday Lecture — Interview with Mr. and
Mrs. Nangle — Doctrinal Conversion is not all that is due to the Convert from
Popery — A Reformed Roman Catholic Priest— Renewed Hospitality at the
Sound — Another Short Visit to the Colony — Newport— Intemperance not
Banished from the County of Mayo— Westport— Castlebar— Sligo— A Beau-
tiful Gem— Hospitality in Death— Picturesque Scenery of the County of Sligo
— Return to Dublin — The Mendicity Association.

Sabbath — I heard Mr. Smith preach a solemn dis-
course from Peter, u Seeing that all these things must
be dissolved," &c. He invited me to his house, and

430 CO. OF MAYO. [CHAP. xxvi.

gave another proof that he obeyed the Apostle's in-
junction, u Given to hospitality." Heard a fluent Der-
byite give a discourse from, " Behold the Lamb of God. "
These people preach Christ in a clear and convincing
manner, and show that they have been taught of him.

I now prepared to visit Achill, which had from
my first visit to Ireland been the spot I most ardently
desired to see. I had heard that it was a little oasis,
where the wilderness had been converted into a fruit-
ful field. I walked six miles to Newport, and called
on the Bible-reader of the Independent church, and by
his hospitable wife was made most welcome. A break-
fast was soon before me, and an inyitation to stop ; but
as her husband was absent, I engaged on my return to
call and spend a night with them, hoping to hear more
particulars about his mission. I passed on, overtook a
poor man walking slowly with a pack upon his back,
and said to him, " We- are walking the same way, and
ou look in ill health." He was cleanly dressed, and
is whole appearance said he had seen better days.
" I am palsied, ma'am, on one side, and can move but
slowly." His history was, that he had been a police-
officer, had been struck with the palsy, and was dumb
for three months. He went to Scotland, England, and
France to be cured, spent all he had, became a beggar,
and finally by teaching had been able to purchase a
few goods, which he was trying to sell about the coun-
try. He was a Roman Catholic, and said he always
kept a Bible till he was palsied ; it was then lost, and
he had not been able to buy one since. He added, " I
am a sinner, and fear I shall never be saved." " Go to
Jesus," was my reply. His ready answer was, " But I
must go in faith, and how shall I get that faith ? I
must go, nothing doubting, for ; he that doubteth is
like a wave of the sea.' " This was sound doctrine,
and I sent up a hearty petition that God would put sui-
table words into my mouth, to speak in season to that
inquiring soul. I endeavored to do so, he thanked
me, and gave an interesting recital of the exercises of
his mind during his sickness, and since he was able to

y
h

CHAP, xxvi.] CO. OF MAYO. 431

move again upon the face of the earth. I presented
him a Testament. He took it, much gratified, and
promised to read it daily ; he had already been en-
lightened by the Holy Spirit into many of its truths,
and could teach many who had read it much more.
He walked so slowly that I bade him good morning,
and passed on to stop at a house and rest a .little.
While there, he went by, and we fell in company again,
and soon overtook a tidily dressed woman, who was
his wife. Again we talked on the same good subject,
but the mind of his wife was still in darkness. They
left me at a poor town, I supposed for ever, and I
reached the Sound at eight o'clock. It was a desired
haven for my weary feet, and yet I dreaded to enter
it. I looked about on the wild shore, to ascertain
where I should find shelter if not received at the hotel.
I saw nothing, and made an ingress in the only door I
saw, which took me to the kitchen, and asked a little
girl if I could have entertainment. She could not
tell, but would ask the mistress. The mistress in a
moment was before me ; and when I saw her uncom-
monly tall figure, I shrank ; but when her kindly
soothing voice said, li You are fatigued, and you had
better walk down to the room," I felt it was the voice
of a friend. In this room were no pigs, hens, calves,
or goats. It was a well ordered, inviting place ; an air
of comfort, health, and peace said, here is the mother
whose daughters shall "arise up and call her blessed."
Every question was put to ascertain my wants ; they
inquired not the strange object of my journey, nor my
pedigree, but, u What can we do to make you most
comfortable ?" O, these are mercy drops to a lone
stranger, far, far from home. These are kindnesses
which Christ will remember when he shall say, " I
was a stranger, and ye took me in."

A fine little ruddy boy of twelve months was laugh-
ing in a sister's lap, and saying, by the clapping of his
tiny hands and sparkling of his eyes, " Welcome, wel-
come, stranger." This boy was the twenty-first child
of that mother, all in the dust but four ; three lovely

432 CO. OF MAYO. [CHAP. xxvi.

daughters moved in that house like young blossoms of
future promise. Gladly would I have stayed for weeks ;
but when two nights and a day had refreshed my weary
limbs, and healed a little my irritated feet, I looked
across the Sound, and made preparations for leaving
their comfortable carpets, cheerful fires, and wholesome
beds, and felt that I was leaving home. " Go," said
Mrs. Savage, " and stay a week upon the island. Visit
the schools, and the cabins, and the curiosities of the
island, and you will be well paid.'7

I had heard much of the indefatigable Mr. Nangle,
and wishe'd to hear from his own lips the success of
his mission, his sacrifices, and future prospects. I had
heard that a fault-finding tourist had been that way,
and carried out some evil reports ; and I had heard
that persecutors had risen up around him, and he
sought redress by the arm of the law. Though that law
gave him the victory, yet some few lips that had read
the gospel whispered that " carnal weapons" were
never fitted for the missionary of the cross. I had heard
that the benevolent Dr. Adams had left all, and de-
voted himself unpaid to that arduous work, and that
the faithful humble curate was a meek pattern of hu-
mility to all around him. On him I was requested to
call, and was offered a note to him from Westport for
that purpose. These different items made up the sum
total of information I had gathered about A chill, and,
putting all into the account, my impressions were more
favorable than otherwise.

. At an early hour I crossed the Sound, intending to
walk till the public car should overtake me. I entered
the colony without the car, and inquired for Mr. Lowe,
the curate. He was not at home. The man of whom
I inquired invited me into his house, and told his wife
to put on the tea-kettle. Telling her I did not usa
tea, she presented me with good domestic bread, milk,
and potatoes. When the dinner was finished, I was
shown into the dining-hall, where dinner for the or-
phans was preparing. Nearly one hundred, I was told,
were here fed, clothed, and taught to read and work.

CHAP, xxvi.] CO. OP MAYO. 433

It was neat and inviting, and the food wholesome and
abundant. I certainly was more than pleased. I was
grateful that my eyes had seen, and I could testify for
myself, that here was a group of children from Ire-
land's poor that needed no pity. The neat white
cabins, and the colony as a whole, looked to me at-
tracting ; a barren soil had been converted into a fruit-
ful field by the hand of industry. It was now nearly
sunset, and lodging must be found. The hotel was
not quite in readiness, and no private lodgings I was
told were in the colony, and I was directed to a hill
out of the colony, to a " respectable tidy house kept by
Molly Vesey.'? I walked and waded through deep
sand till the hill was ascended, and the huts, of rough
stone, flung together without mortar, without gables,
and circular at the top, made one of the most for-
bidding looking spots that I had ever seen. Winding
among the huddled kraals, to ascertain whether it was
possible that a being who had breathed a civilized air
could tarry there for a night, I at last was directed to
Molly Vesey's. As I looked in, " And is this in truth
the tidy lodging-house, where the good people of the
colony directed a stranger to lodge ? Is this the do-
micile where the thrifty manager has gathered two
hundred pounds, and put it in safe keeping for pos-
terity ?" A cow was in the kitchen ; a man not of the
" finest and fairest" was smoking in a corner ; a two
pail-full pot was boiling a supper of lumpers, but Molly
was not in. I sat down, and she soon entered, and
making my wants known, I was invited " to walk
down." Hope revived — something better might be in
reserve. My fate was fixed. I turned my eyes upon
the frightful bed on which I was to be laid, and said,
must 1 drink this bitter cup ? A pile of stools, bar-
rels, and such like etceteras, with a long table, made
up the furniture, and in the midst of this I was seated.
1 was for a few moments in a profound reverie. And
is this the outer porch of the superb temple I had come
to visit ? Surely the architect must have a few mould-
ings and trimmings yet to put on before the fabric will
19

434 CO. OF MAYO. [CHAP. xxvi.

be quite finished. My meditations were soon broken
by Molly's entering with a feather bed, and placing it
upon a bench ; the long table was drawn into a cen-
tral part of the room, a chair put at one end, and a half
barrel across it serving two purposes — to lengthen the
table, and elevate my head. Seeing what was in re-
serve, I asked, " What are you doing ?" " Making you
a nice bed, ma'am." u Why not put me upon the bed-
stead ?" "A stranger sleeps there." "A stranger!
Who is this stranger ?" " A nice man, ma'am." This
was the man who was smoking in the corner when I en-
tered. u And you mean, madam, to put a man into
this room to-night r" u What harrum, what harrum ?"
My indignation was aroused, nor did it settle entirely
on the head of Molly. In the mouth of two or three
witnesses was it established at the colony, that Molly
Vesey was not only a respectable wpman, but kept a
respectable tidy house ; and yet that same Molly sold
whiskey, and by this got her wealth. Is this then the
standard of morality, propriety, and tidiness elevated
by the colonists for strangers to gather about ? Do
you ask the names of these witnesses? I do not know,
or gladly would I put them upon this paper. " You
may, please, carry your bed away, good woman. I
shall not sleep upon it." A whisper was given to the
girl, and then, turning to me, " You shall sleep on the
bedstead." I was the loser on the score of cleanliness.
Had I slept upon the barrel, I might have had a clean
cover for my pillow ; but I had the room, with all its
indescribables, to my own independent self, and in the
morning awoke to a brighter view of what appertained
to this " tidy lodging-place." A plate of potatoes was
offered, which I declined, paid for my accommodations,
and was about to depart, when a loquacious teacher
gave me a few new ideas and proofs of the merits of
the Romish church ; he certainly had tact, he cer-
tainly had words, and he certainly knew something of
the history of both the Romish and Protestant church.
After an hour's listening, my escape was effected,
through sand and difficulties, to the neat little colony.

CHAP, xxvii.] CONCLUSION. 455

who had it in their power received and treated me more
kindly ; yet it has not loosened one cord that tied my
heart to the suffering poor, it has not induced me to
shun one neglected alley, where lay on their cold
pile of straw the starving and the dying. No, it has
stimulated me more to stir up my country to come to
your aid, and I will do it so long as my pen can move
and my country has a loaf to spare. If any one think
me too severe in any of these pages, let him reverse
the picture ; let him suppose that America for the last
fifty years had been pouring in her destitute ragged
paupers upon you, by wholesale and retail. Suppose
you had welcomed these paupers, had given them labor
and bread till they could walk upon the earth as men
and women. And suppose, at the end of fifty years,
an Irish woman should be disposed (however strange
the whim) to visit that country, to see what these Ame-
ricans were at home, to learn their manners and habits
there, in order to better understand them here, and do
them good ; should you not expect that the law of civi-
lity, the law of Christianity, and the law of equity
at least should induce them not only to receive her
cordially, but to do all in their power to facilitate such
rational designs ?

I ask no answer. I put the question not to anger
you, not to complain, but to convince you that such were
the most honorable, the most Christian-like way to act ;
and should the like again happen, the Bible mode will
be the best to adopt, to u be careful to entertain stran-"
gers," till you know they are impostors ; and suspect
not their letters as forged ones, till some marks of for-
gery can be detected. What would have become of
your poor countrymen, think you, in America, had they
been treated thus ? I am glad I came ; I am glad to be
here in your dreadful famine ; I am glad to be honored
with doing a little for the wretched among you. Would
to God I could do more. Three years almost I have gone
over, and looked at your pretty island, and with all my
privations, my toil, and cold repulses, I have been paid,
doubly repaid ; and from my heart can I say, were it not

456 CONCLUSION. [CHAP. xxvn.

for the suffering my eyes have seen, I should place these
years among the happiest of my life. I love you all,
and would do you all good, were it in my power." To
the Roman Catholics, both duty and inclination re-
quire that I should acknowledge a deep debt of grati-
tude. They have opened the doors of convents, of
schools, of mansions, and cabins, without demanding
letters, or distrusting those that were presented. They
have sheltered me from storm and tempest ; they
have warmed and fed me without fee or reward, when
my Protestant brethren and sisters frowned me away.
God will remember this, and I will remember it.

Should I ever reach home, I hope to give a fuller de-
tail of my tour, which embraced all but the county of
Cavan. I have made no mention of the north of Ire-
land, for want o£room, but cannot close without saying
that in Belfast I spent a few pleasant weeks. The Pro-
testants there made me feel as if I were by a New Eng-
land fireside, where I was neither worshipped as a god-
dess nor made a second-hand article, though I might per-
form some domestic service appropriate to woman.
Their religion appeared, in many cases, like that of the
heart, and their labors through the past winter of fa-
mine, and which have not yet relaxed, testify that their
faith has produced good works.

I have spoken plainly, that I might render unto Cae-
sar the things that are Caesar's ; and as I visited Ire-
land to see it as it is, so I report it as I found it. I
have stayed to witness that which, though so heart-rend-
\ ing and painful, has given me but the proof of what
\cornmon observation told me in the beginning — that
there must needs be an explosion of some kind or other.
But awful as it is, it has shown Ireland who are her
worthy ones within her, and who are her friends abroad,
and it will show her greater things than these.

May God bring her from her seven-times-heated fur-
nace, purified and unhurt, and place her sons and daugh-
ters among the brightest of the stars that shall shine for
ever in the kingdom of heaven, is the sincere desire of
the writer.

BINDING

JAN 2 7

DA
975
N53
1847

Nicholson, Asenath (Hatch)

Ireland's welcome to the
stranger

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CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

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Full text of "Ireland's welcome to the stranger; or An excursion through Ireland, in 1844 & 1845, for the purpose of personally investigating the condition of the poor"

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